Oru raathri koodi vidavaangi, thirichu varaathe...

Kozhikode: Thursday, february 11, 2010: Gireesh Puthenchery, one of the most prolific lyricists of Malayalam cinema of the last two decades, died of brain haemorrhage at a private hospital in Kozhikode on Wednesday night. He was 48 and was survived by his wife Beena and two young sons.

Girish Puthenchery was admitted to the Classified Hospital after he suffered a stroke last Saturday. He was twice operated upon, but his condition did not improve and he died at the hospital tonight subsequent a cerebral blood loss.

He was also one of the most honoured lyricists, having won the State award seven times, of which four were in consecutive years - 2001 to 2004.

Gireesh made his debut in 1990 with ‘Enquiry’ and went on to write about 2000 songs in over 300 Malayalam films.
Gireesh had formed a melodious partnership with the well-known Vidyasagar to create some lovely melodies in films like ‘Pranayavarnangal’ (“Aaro viral meettee…”), ‘Meesa Madhavan’ (“Karimizhi kuruviye…”), ‘Chandranudikkunna Dikkil’ (“Oru kunju poovinte…”), ‘Summer in Bethlehem’ (“Oru rathri koodi…”) and ‘Randam Bhavam’ (“Marannittumenthino…”).
The late Raveendran was another composer who teamed up with Gireesh to come up with hits. Their most popular songs include “Harimuraleeravam…” (‘Aaram Thampuran’), “Karmukil varnante…” (‘Nandanam’) and “Kalabham tharam…” (‘Vadakkumnathan’).
Among other notable songs of Gireesh are “Soorya kireedom…” (‘Devasuram’), “Enthu paranjalum…” (‘Achuvinte Amma’), “Kannu nattu…” (‘Kathavasheshan’) and “Amma mazhakarinu…” (‘Madambi’).
Gireesh was also a scriptwriter. His first screenplay was ‘Kinnaripuzhayoram’, an enjoyable comedy starring Jayaram and Sreenivasan, and though it was a promising start, he wrote only two more scripts after that.
‘Vadakkumnathan’, the film for which he wrote his last script, was a box office hit. He had penned scripts for films like Vadakkumnathan, Kinnaripuzhaoram, Palavoor Devanarayanan, Meleparambil Aanveedu. He also had plans to write another script and even direct a film, but that, unfortunately, was not to be.

photo courtesy: varnachitram.com