Pukazhenthi Biography 
Pukazhenthi was a south Indian music director who concentrated most on Malayalam movies. Velappan Nair is his real name, a resident of Thiruvananthapuram born in the year 1929. Pukezhenthi worked as K. V. Mahadevan's associate for more than 250 movies belonging to different languages, which proved to be his career turning point. Pukazhenthi has composed music for Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu movies and his first independent movie was Muthalali released in 1965. He was associated with film music till 1995 – almost 3 decades. He has also composed songs for devotional albums. `Gopuramukalil vasanthachandran... ' is one of his big hits.
He was born on September 27, 1929 to Kesava Pillai and Janakiamma. He did his schooling at V.M. School, Chala Thiruvananthapuram. He moved to Tamil Nadu alongside a Tamil drama troupe, which visited Kerala thus neglecting his education. The troupe was run by N.S. Krishnan and in those days legendary actor Sivaji Ganesan was a part of the troupe. He was only 10 years old then. Thus he got opportunity to work with Sivaji. His voice was mostly used for female characters of the plays till his voice broke. N. P. Sivam ((M. Parameswaran Nair) was one of the earliest names who nourished the music talents of young Velappan Nair. He adopted the name of the famous Tamil poet Pukazhenthi to start his music journey. The name was given by his guru himself. Sivaji ganeshan’s Tamil play `Thozhan’ marked his new beginning as a music director. It was in the late 1940s and his debut work was a major hit.
Pukazhenthi's film career began in 1952 as an assistant to C.N. Pandurangan. His association with Mahadevan gave him a promising break to the industry. Till Mahadevan's death, he remained as his assistant. As an independent film music director, Sneehadeepame Mizhi Thurakku, Agniparvatham, Raakkuyil, Kalyana Saugandhikam (1975) and Moonu Pookkal are some of his noted works.
Published: N/A
Updated: September 23, 2014
