When a beautiful film song is heard, we often tend to notice its singer and music director but there are numerous instrumentalists who have worked hard day and night to bring out that wonderful creation. Most of them don’t want to be in the limelight. They love to remain cocooned in their world of creativity and perfect their art.

Flautist V C George, 73, is one such personality. Even at this old age, he holds on to his passion for music. Take Malayalam films like Hridayapoothalam…, Chandanamanivathil pathi chari….Chandanam Manakkunna poonthottam or Swapnangalokkeyum Panku vikkam…. In all these and numerous other songs there is George’s touch of talent.

Sitting in his house at Enikkara in Thiruvananthapuram, the seasoned musician recollects his good old days in bits and pieces, as his memory sometimes fails him.

“I started composing songs for Nellikunnu St Sebastian Church and Lourde church even when I was in the ninth standard. I used to play harmonium then. When I was in St. Thomas College from 1964 to 1967, I formed a ganamela troupe under the name Paramount Revelry Orchestra. Later, Guitarist Atlee, singer Akbar Shah and I formed an orchestra group called Voice of Thrissur that performed ganamelas and accompanied dramas” says this unassuming musician, who was born and brought up in Thrissur.

Famous music director Johnson Master lived just five houses away from George’s. It was Johnson’s father who took him to George to teach him the basic lessons of harmonium. George introduced little Johnson to the Thrissur-based Social Service Organisation (SSO) as Cabasa (an acoustic instrument used for special effects at that time) player. He gradually taught the little boy harmonium at this centre.  

 “Johnson was a brilliant chap of 10 years then. He also sang beautifully. Singing songs of P Suseela, Janaki and P Leela in female voice was his strongpoint then. He quickly mastered harmonium as his fingers were nimble. In later years, he turned a harmonist as well as singer in Voice Of Thrissur…”

In 1967, George graduated in BSc and left home to join Mother Teresa’s missionary works in Kolkata. After some months he returned home and resumed his association with Voice of Thrissur.

In 1971, singer K J Yesudas chanced upon this talent at Kochi Kalabhavan’s office, where George had gone to meet him. He invited George to Chennai, which was the only hub of South Indian music at that time. “Dasettan had come in his Fiat car at the Chennai Railway station to receive me; he put me up in the room of harmonist Nagarajan. This was sometime in April. The next day he introduced me to Guna Singh, from whom I learnt techniques of playing flute during recordings. I had learnt the basics of flute rendering in Thrissur from Hindustani flute player Samuel Master and Poduval, who was a Karnatic musician,” he recalls.

Till 1975 George was busy with programmes and recording in Chennai. In that year, he returned to Thrissur to do his MA in Kerala Varma College . In 1979, he got married to Valsa and got settled in Thiruvananthapuram. During the years following this, his life became hectic again with recordings in Tharangini, stage programmes and Akashavani recordings.

However, the invasion of synthesizers and keyboards in into music industry in late 80s virtually started effacing flautists and many such natural instrument players from the music scenes. A great talent like George was not much affected though. But he began concentrating more in studio recordings and giving training to aspiring flautists. Meanwhile, his old age also started troubling him with health discomforts.

Over the past ten years, George had almost been a forgotten name in the music field. But, a recent Facebook post of him was heart-warming to hundreds of his old fans. He said, “at 73 I feel I’m young and would like to start again…many more years left…”

George remembers with veneration J M Raju who was a singer and preacher at Christian Arts and Communication studio. He encouraged him compose and write songs for musical works in the studio. “In those days we used to get Rs 30 for writing and composing a song. Now the situation has changed...” he says.

George reveals an interesting facet of his life. “Even in my busy days, I used to do a side-business. I used to sell home-made fish fry and chicken curry to make some extra income. During the recording of Kannur Rajan’s song Mounam polum madhuram kokile… I recorded a flute link and ran out to deliver dish parcels even without waiting to hear the recorded bit. Later when I returned, Rajan patted me… his joy knew no bounds for the flute links I played for that song” he remembers.

George’s son Sani George owns an event management company in the US. His daughter Gemol is a nurse and clinical informatics co-ordinator in the US.

The veteran musician holds his flute close to his chest and whispers- “this has been the breath of my life. I have breathed life into many songs with this bamboo instrument. And, I know my bansuri will be with me till my last breath”

Contact George: 9895953274