Gireesh Puthenchery

Gireesh Puthenchery is one of the most prolific lyricists of Malayalam cinema. Over the last two decades, he has penned about 2000 songs that had been just like a poetic flow out of his mind. He has won the Kerala State Award seven times, of which four were given to him for consecutive years (2001-04). Besides being a lyricist, he tried his hand even as a screenwriter.

He was successful in scripting story for four films of which ‘ Pallavur Devanarayanan Click to look into! >> Read More... ’ (1999), ‘Vadakkumnadhan ‘(2006), and ‘Kerala House Udan Vilpanakku’(2004) were the average success in the box-office. He was born on 1 May 1961, in Kozhikode. He has worked for about 328 Malayalam films. This lyricist had a good association with two music composers, and they were Vidhya Sagar Vidya Sagar is one of the best music directors in >> Read More... and Raveendran respectively.

His song “Pinneyum pinneyum aar”, for the movie ‘ Krishnagudiyil Oru Pranayakalathu Click to look into! >> Read More... ’ (1997), was composed by Vidyasagar and it was an example of a good poetry which no other lyricist in Malayalam cinema could have written at that time. The team of Vidhya Sagar-Gireesh went on to produce many other hit songs such as ‘Aaro viral meettee” from the film “Pranayavarnangal”.

‘Karimizhi kuruviye’ from the film ‘’Meesa Madhavan’’, Then ‘Oru kunju poovinte’ from the film “Chandranudikkunna Dikkil” and ‘Oru rathri koodi’ from the film “Summer in Bethlehem” etc. Apart from Vidyasagar, Gireesh also shared a rapport with one more composer Raveendran. Many actors and music directors have often stated that Gireesh is the best lyricists produced by the Malayalam film industry.

His teaming up with music composer Raveendran gave popular hit songs such as ‘Kalabham tharam’ from the film "Vadakkumnathan’’ which released in 2006 and had Mohanlal and Padma Priya in a lead role. Earlier, the team Raveendran-Gireesh had worked wonders with the song ‘Harimuraleeravam’ from the movie “Aaram Thampuran” which released in 1997 and had Mammootty and Manju Warrier in lead roles.

In 2002, “Nandanam” which was the most critically acclaimed movie, the popular songs of the film were written by Gireesh Puthenchery and composed by maestro Raveendran. The songs were on a chart for weeks and the song ‘Karmukil Varnante’ became highly popular.

Gireesh had also shared the good rapport with composers such as M. Jayachandran & Issac Thomas Kottukapally for film ‘Kathavasheshan’, M. G. Radhakrishnan for film ‘Devasuram’, Ilaiyaraaja for film ‘Kathavasheshan’ and M.Jayachandran for the film ‘Madampi’. Many of his songs such as “Amma Mazhakkarinu" and "Kalyanakacheri" from the film 'Madampi ' and the song "Vande Mukunda Hare" from the film ‘Devasuram’ were chartbusters.

Especially, the song ‘Vande Mukunda Hare’ picturised on Oduvil Unnikrishnan Oduvil Unnikrishnan was a classic, versatile actor >> Read More... , is considered the most dramatic scene in the film. That was the magic of Gireesh Puthenchery , who could even write the theme of a movie through his songs.

While he made his first song in his career was for the film ‘Chakravaalathinappuram’ (1998), his first hit songs were from the movie ‘ Johnny Walker Johnny Walker is a comedian of Bollywood. His orig >> Read More... ’(1992) and his last movie was ‘Cassanova’ (2012). He passed away on 10 February 2010 due to brain hemorrhage leaving his wife Beena and two sons Jithin and Dinanath in much grief.