Lyricist Mankombu Gopalakrishnan passes away in Kochi-OxBig News Network

Mankombu Gopalakrishnan
| Photo Credit: TH

Lyricist Mankombu Gopalakrishnan, 78, died here on Monday.

His death occurred around 4.55 p.m. due to heart failure. He was admitted to the intensive care unit of the Medical Trust Hospital eight days ago, according to the hospital authorities.

Born in 1947 in Mankombu village in Alappuzha, he had written over 700 songs for about 200 movies. In a film career spanning over five decades, he had written the story and screenplay for around 10 movies.

He had handled the dialogues and lyrics of the Malayalam-dubbed versions of Tamil, Kannada and Telugu movies, including box-office hits like RRR, Baahubali-1, Baahubali-2 and Magadheera.

As a young writer, cinema was his dream and the turning point came after he decided to board a train to Madras in 1970. An offer to take up the editor post of Anveshanam magazine helped him to connect with filmmakers. He entered the tinsel town as a lyricist through the movie Vimochana Samaram in 1971.

Hits

He caught the attention of the industry after the song Laksharchana Kandu Madangumbol… written by him for director Hariharan’s Ayalathe Sundari in 1974 became a major hit. He picked words and images rooted in tradition and that could easily connect with the audiences.

Some of his memorable songs include Ilam manjin kulirumayoru Kuyil… (Ninnishtam Ennishtam); Ashada masam… (Yuddha bhoomi); Kalidasante kavyabhavanaye… (Sujatha); Naadan pattinte… (Babu mon); and Ee puzhayum Kulirkattum (Mayookham). He had worked with legendary music directors, including M.S. Viswanathan, Devarajan, M.K. Arjunan, Ravindra Jain, Bombay Ravi, K.V. Mahadevan, M.B. Sreenivasan, Ilayaraja and Keeravani, to name a few.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Speaker A.N. Shamseer condoled his death. They recalled that his songs reflected the culture and life of the Kerala society.