Continuing his mission of fusing poetry and melody, G. Venugopal is bringing out his fifth album of poems set to music, tomorrow. Kavyageethikal (Volume II) has him singing the lines of poets Sugathakumari, Dr. Ayyappa Panicker, Balachandran Chullikad, Vijayalakshmi, Vayalar and G. Kumara Pillai.
Big success
“The first collection of Kavyageethikal is one of my biggest successes and it confirms my belief that the Malayali wants both lyrical and musical brilliance in songs. This volume, composed by Jaisun Nair, has both,” says the playback singer. Venugopal's interest in literature helps him home in on poems that he feels could be set to music. He adds that the album is a collective effort with V.R. Sudheesh, a friend of his, and music director Jason J Nair, chipping in with their creative suggestions too. Venugopal, in turn, has a hand in the tuning of the poems as well.
It was Venugopal's quest for lyrical lines that made him explore the realm of poetry.
“I long to hear and sing evergreen songs that have layers of meaning. There was romance, revolution, philosophy, humour and nostalgia in our film songs of yore. However, all that seemed to take a back seat due to a deluge of songs that were little more than words strung together,” rues the award-winning singer.
That was when he happened to render M. Jayachandran's composition of Kadamannita's poem Shanta for a telefilm in 1999. He remembers the immense satisfaction he got when he rendered the rich lines of the poet. “That set me thinking and that was how my first album Kavyaragam came about.”
Next came Ghazalpookal,Kavyageethikal and Sahayatrike.
Poems
The first one in the new collection is Sugathakumari's ‘Krishna Nee Enne Ariyilla' followed by Dr. Panicker's ‘Ariyunnu Gopike Ninne Njan' from Gopika Dandakam. Next comes Chullikad's soulful poem on Mother Teresa – ‘Mother Teresaekku Maranam Undagil.'
The other three poems are ‘Vrichikam' by Vijayalakshmi, ‘Realityum Realisavum' by Vayalar and Kumara Pillai's ‘Mugdham.'
“Part of Vayalar's poem had been set to music by Devarajan Master and I had sung it too. This time, we have composed the entire poem,” adds Venugopal. Each of the poems has a short introduction that explains what the poem is all about so that listeners can tune in to the music and the poetry.
Venugopal is now working on a collection of romantic poems set to music.
