She was a talented woman who was beginning to blossom into a music composer and singer in her own right when death’s cold hand embraced her.
Shan Johnson was carving a niche for herself other than being known as the daughter of the legendary Johnson Master and was busy with her music commitments. In fact her last Facebook post, just hours before her death, was about the Hindi lyrics she penned for the film Vettah under the music direction of her friend Shaan Rahman captioning it as ‘Shan and Shaan’. The lines she wrote, bas Ishq hi hai dhua, mannat de de eh khudha, are part of the song Raavumaayave.
Rajesh Pillai, the director of the film Vettah, is deeply saddened by Shan Johnson’s demise.
He says, “When I mentioned that I wanted Hindi lyrics for my song it was Shaan Rahman who mentioned his friend Shan Johnson. He added that she wrote and spoke Hindi well and that is how she came on board. It was Shaan himself who informed me about her death.”
Shan’s father Johnson had died in 2011 and six months later her brother Ren passed away in a bike accident. Shan’s final rituals would be conducted on Sunday afternoon at the St Sebastian’s church at Nellikkunnu, the same place where her father was laid to rest.
Singer G. Venugopal took to his Facebook page to share some memories about Shan who called him uncle and whom he has known since her childhood. Incidentally Shan had contacted Venugopal to sing a song under her music direction and Venugopal was completely thrilled with the idea of singing under her baton, having sung for her father numerous times.
A recording studio was also booked for the same a day after her death and he had even made arrangements for lunch with Shan, her mother Rani and her fiancé at his home.
He writes, “When my wife returned after making arrangements for the lunch, I told her that Shan was gone. Shan’s music had a natural and original mood, style and beauty. She was very bold and had a very strong vision of her goal and had a unique personality. With her death the lineage of Johnson Master comes to an end and my eyes fill without comprehending why it happened!”
Venugopal mentions that Shan had already composed the music for the song beginning Illaveyyil kondu naam nadanna naalukkal, edavazhiyil hridayangal thuranna vellakal and adds that he hopes that he would be able to sing this song some day for Shan.
