M. G. Radhakrishnan

Born on 29 July 1940, in Alappuzha district, Kerala, Malabar Gopalan Nair Radhakrishnan (M.G. Nair) is a classical music director and even a vocalist, who is considered as a senior most musician in Malayalam movies. . His father was a renowned music composer and harmonium player and mother was a Harikatha exponent. His brother M.G. Sreekumar is an eminent playback singer in Malayalam cinema and his sister K. Omanakutty is a renowned vocalist too. Malabar Gopalan Nair was a classmate of renowned singer K. J. Yesudas. 

Gopalan’s journey began as a composer in Akashvani  in Trivandrum. Soon he joined All India Radio as a music composer and was given a chance to hold a 15-minute program in AIR, which became a favorite. He forayed into musical journey as a singer in the film ‘Kallichellamma’(1969).  He rendered the song ‘Unniganapathiye’, which was composed by K Raghavan, His debut as a musical composer was for the film ‘Thampu’ (1978). But he shot to  fame composing songs ‘Mouname Mouname’ and’ Kudayolam Bhoomi’ from the film ‘Thakara’ (1980). 

Gopalan is well known for giving first break to singers like Sujatha and G. Venugopal through his non-filmi songs. He also introduced singers like K.S.Chitra and M.G.Sreekumar to film music. Both Chithra and Sreekumar received the National Awards for rendering songs under his composition. Even eminent singer S.Janaki rendered the most melodious songs “Mauname” in the film ‘Thakara’ and “Natha Nee Varum“ in the film ’Chamram”. 

Gopalan has scored great music for director G.Aravindan and later composed songs for Fazil, I.V.Sasi, Priyadarshan, Bharathan etc. He has been active for more than 28 years as a music composer in films and has scored music for over 100 films. Many of his films received national film awards too. They include "Manichithrathazhu", "Peruvazhiyambalam","Thambu" & "Kummatti" etc. He passed away on July 2, 2010, in Thiruvananthapuram.