Maane Maane from Swapnam (1973), Tarun Bandopadhaya and the stately Nandita Bose.

Maane Maane Vili Kelku is one classic that always manages to set your foot tapping, it has a very infectious bass line and a structure which is so ‘Salil da ‘. It could even pass off as one of the legendary KJ Joy‘s compositions, if not for those quirky signature riffs that spells Salilda’s genius.

Swapnam (1973), directed by Babu Nandancode, starring Madhu, Sudhir (The man who made floral terylene full-sleeved shirts with a flashing Rado on your right wrist a fashion statement 🙂  ) and Nandita Bose (sigh) as the lady love torn between the two, was a long and drawn out masala film for what it was worth, but the songs were pure genius!

Nadan Pattile Mynah, Vani Jayaram, Raagam(1975) and Dharmendra.

Raagam, released in 1975, was directed by A.Bheem Singh ( Sukumari’s husband) had its music of all the 6 compositions of Vayalar, done by Salilda, and the most popular among the soundtracks have to be Nadan pattile Mynah and Ividekattinu Sugandham.

The latter became the title of many risque one-liners and the butt of many jokes ( the expression that literally translates to “I love the fragrance in the breeze here” was a phrase begging to be misused, in the opposite sense).

Neelaponmane, Nellu (1974) and Geetashree Sandhya Mukherjee.

It would be kind of missing the point to say that the  amazing repertoire of Salilda‘s contribution to Malayalam Cinema, more or less revolves around Chemmeen‘s soundtrack, every single one of them. It was close to around 25 films, the last being Vellam (1984), produced by actor Devan ( his first and last stint in production). What is not commonly known to most who deeply love Salilda’s music style was his dexterity in adapting his tunes across Indian  languages which would have given anyone else the ants-in-pants syndrome. Not that all were successful. I always wince everytime I listen to Kadali, Chenkadali from Nellu, rendered by Lata Mangeshkar for Salilda in Malayalam. Surely, S. Janaki or P.Susheela were available, weren’t they?