O. N. V. Kurup (b. 1931)

Songwriter. With Vyalar Rama Varma and P. Bhaskaran, he formed the troika ruling Malayalam film song since the early 50s. Like the others, he was rooted in the Kerala Peoples Arts Club’s radical theatre, for which he wrote some of its most famous songs: Balikutterangale, Aa malar poikayil (both scored by Devarajan) and Madala poopoloru (scored by Salil Choudhury). Although he shares the pervasive influence of post- Changampuzha ‘romantic’ poetry, his bestknown early work in both his independent poetry (e.g. the anthologies Samarattinte Santatikal/Offspring? of the Revolution, 1951; Mattuvin Chattangale/Change? the Laws, 1955) and in his film writing, is more militant than that of his 2 colleagues.

Music