G. Devarajan

Paravoor Govindan Devarajan (1927–2006), popularly known as G. Devarajan or Devarajan master, was an Indian music composer and Carnatic vocalist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Malayalam film music, as well as being a highly respected figure among South Indian film musicians as a whole. He scored music for more than 300 Malayalam films, many dramas, and twenty Tamil and four Kannada movies. His collaborations with Vayalar Ramavarma produced the golden era of Malayalam film music and many of his compositions remain evergreen classics in Malayalam. His music in the Tamil film Annai Velankanni has received many accolades. Devarajan received Kerala Government's Best Music Director award five times, among other honours. In 1999, he was honoured with the J. C. Daniel Award, Kerala government's highest honour for contributions to Malayalam cinema. Early life Devarajan was born on 27 September 1927 at Paravur, near Kollam in then Travancore to mridangam player and classical singer Paravur N. Kochu Govindan Asan and Kochukunju as their eldest son. His grandfather, Narayanan Asan, was a Kathakali artist. His dad, though he was a mridangam vidwan and a disciple of Dakshinamurthy Pillai, primarily taught vocal to his students, and thus Devarajan learned Carnatic vocal for around 12–13 years adeptly from his own father through that. He did his intermediate college at University College in Thiruvananthapuram from 1946 to 1948 and passed with First Class. He graduated with BA in Economics from Mahatma Gandhi College, Thiruvananthapuram. Devarajan, under the name of Paravur Devarajan or Paravur G. Devaraj, started his illustrious career in music as a classical singer and performed his first classical concert at the age of 17 and started to perform more concerts on AIR Tiruchi and Trivandrum.