A biopic will be made on the life of legendary poet and lyricist of Malayalam songs Vayalar Rama Varma. The news was announced by the late poet’s widow Bharathi Rama Varma and son Vayalar Sarath Chandra Varma in front of the Vayalar Memorial Museum at his old home Raghavaparambu in Cherthala.
The film will be directed by Pramod Payyanur, who has earlier directed the Mammootty starrer Balyakalasakhi, based on a story by renowned writer Basheer. Pramod, who is now the secretary of the government’s Bharat Bhavan, will also write the script of the film. He has done programmes on the life of the poet for various media in the past.
The biopic will capture three time periods – the life of Vayalar Rama Varma, the golden age of Malayalam cinema and the Punnapra Vayalar Uprising.
The film will be made under the banner of Life of Colours with Arun MC and Saleel Raj producing it. Sethu Adoor and K Binukumar will serve as production controller and executive producer respectively.
Vayalar was a prolific writer, having penned the lyrics for over 1,300 songs for more than 240 Malayalam films, from the mid 1950s to the mid 1970s. He received the National Award for Best Lyrics in 1972 and the State Award four times, beginning with the year of its inception in 1962. He mostly associated with musician G Devarajan for the film songs, the Vayalar-Devarajan combo being a favourite among music connoisseurs.
Some of the popular songs written by Vayalar are ‘Manushyan Mathangale Srishtichu’ (Achanum Bappayum), all songs of Chemmeen, Anubhavangal Paalichakal, Nellu, Ningal Enne Communist Aaki, 'vadakkan paatukal' (ballads of north Malabar) in movies like Udayananu Makan, Aaromal Unni and so on.
Vayalar has also received the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for poetry in 1962 for his anthology Sargasangeetham. He passed away in 1975, when he was only 47 years old after a liver complaint.