A lyricist for more than 650 songs for the Malayalam film industry since 1985, recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award, however, Kerala media doesn’t seem to be ‘celebrating’ the demise of Ramesan Nair. Prominent news portals such as Mathrubhumi that claims to ‘own’ the literary heritage of the state said it all in a few columns. Probably his connections with right-wing and his inclination towards Hinduism, however, this serves as a classic example of how writers belonging to the right-wing ignored by mainstream media in Kerala and by the government.
Poet S. Rameshan Nair was born on 3 May 1948 in a village named Kumarapuram in the present-day Kanyakumari district, in Tamil Nadu, as the son of late Shadananan Thampi and late Parvathi Amma. Due to his intense passion for poetry, he dropped his admission for MBBS and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Economics in 1966 and later completed his post-graduation in Malayalam Literature in 1972. He worked as a sub-editor in Kerala Bhasha Institute and also worked in All India Radio as a producer.
Ramesan Nair was a playwright, lyricist and translator, and commentator of classical Indian literature such as the Tamil works Chalappathikaram and Thirukkural. He achieved wide appreciations as a poet through works like Sooryahridayam, before starting his accomplished career as film lyricist in 1985 by penning songs for the movie Pathamudayam. He wrote songs for 170 films and 3,000 devotional tracks.
Ramesan Nair was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2018 for the work Guru Pournami following which in 2010 Kerala offered him Sahitya Akademi award too.
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