Abhayadev

Abhayadev was born on 25th June 1913 in Pallam, Kerala. Known as the father of Malayalam music industry, many regard him as the torchbearer of the whole Malayalam music front. Abhayadev was one of the greatest musicians of all time. He was a poet and lyricist and it was him who gave the Malayalam music industry their own original touch.

Earlier in the times, most of the playback singing and music that was used in Malayalam film industry would generally be a carbon copy of Hindi and Telugu film industry. But it was Abhayadev who came in and took everything by storm, he introduced a new Malayali touch to the songs and hence birthed a whole new generation of artists.

Abahayadev was the son of Karimalil Pillai, a famous poet in his time. At school, Abhayadev was very much drawn into the freedom struggle, he would often show his patriotism and his struggle against the British rule by wearing Khadi, something that he wore till he died.

He started writing patriotic poems and he was very much curious to learn Hindi. He was also fascinated with Mahatma Gandhi, as he would travel the whole South India to spread the ideas and messages of Gandhi.

As a result of his love towards his country, Abhayadev joined the Arya Samaj. Later, after finishing his work of the freedom struggle, Abhayadev returned back home in Kerala and started to write lyrics and poems for the regional publications.

It at that time, a local drama group asked Abhayadev to write a few songs for them, and he ended up writing five songs and he was paid well for them. It was then, he realized that this could be turned into a good profession. Writing lyrics and poems for theaters soon would lead Abhayadev to the films, as it was a theater artist who introduced Abhayadev to Kunchako, a famous producer and director of the time.

He gave Abhayadev his first break when Abhayadev was asked to write the lyrics for the songs in the movie Vellinakshatram in 1949. Soon after making a name in the industry, Abhayadev started writing dialogues, scripts and stories too. He became a master at almost everything he was doing at the time. By the end of his career, Abhayadev wrote lyrics for around 500 films and he also wrote more than 30 dialogues for movies. He sadly passed away on 26th July 2000.