The Ganamela man

It is terribly hot, isn’t it, Manacaud Gopan asks two visitors who come riding in the sun at 1 in the afternoon. Last night’s rain seems like a distant memory and Thiruvananthapuram is once again boiling. Gopan presents them with cool drinks and puffs from the family-run bakery before he begins to talk. On learning he is completing three decades of professional singing this year, you expect an older looking, serious man at his house in Champakada. But Gopan looks young, overly polite and unassuming, telling his story that began 33 years ago, when he sang ‘as an amateur’ in his first ganamela, that would become a way of life for this humble musician.

“It was 1985, when there were not so many television channels for music. It was all live programmes and open air performances and the people who came in to watch us were many,” he says. Back then he had not begun learning classical music. But he was known as a singer in his class and friends called out his name to the music teacher at Vidyadhiraja School. Bhuvanachandran sir put his name for light music competitions and he came out winning prizes. He was in class X then and his father was strict. Gopan had to persuade his family to let him learn music. “My father was a wrestler — the late Manacaud Narayana Pillai — and he used to travel across the country, listening to classical concerts, both Carnatic and Hindustani. He could name the ragas by listening to songs. But he was strict at home,” Gopan says.

But then it worked for him that he’s the son of this famous wrestler, who was adored across the state. One big fan was Devarajan Master, the late musician, who used to climb a tree to watch Manacaud Narayana Pillai wrestle. When he knew Gopan was his son, he became very affectionate. He gave him the moniker Manacaud Gopan.

Gopan had joined Devarajan Master in his work, after a tabalist — Prakash — recommended his name. He became part of the master’s orchestra programmes, sang tracks for him. Someone in the orchestra said Gopan should sing more Tamil and Hindi since his voice was like SPB’s. And Gopan became known for his ‘variety singing’, for most others then sang Malayalam. He had a short break in 1995 when he got married to Deepa, who would later become his biggest critic. In six months, Gopan came back to his ganamelas, and also picked up a few movies on the way — Vasanthathinte Kanal Vazhikal, Persiakkaran, Monai Engine Aanayi, and others. “Nagavalli, the Malayalam dubbing of a Telugu film, perhaps features my best song,” he adds.

By now, Gopan has sung in over 200 albums, most of them devotional, and several television series. He won the television award for singing in Devaragam, a serial. Now he is composing a title song for a tele-film Ammapattangal, and his daughter Gouri is singing it. “She accompanies me for ganamelas. Now she is in class XII and so, taking a break.” His son Goutam too has an interest in music, but that’s more to do with sound design.