Lenin Rajendran had a remarkable ear for music. Not many directors cared as much for melodious tunes and meaningful lines as he did.
Little wonder, nearly all his films featured lovely songs. And he had begun very well, too. His first film, Venal, had a beautiful song sung by S. Janaki – Kantha mrudula smera…
It was written by O.N.V. Kurup and tuned by M.B. Sreenivasan. He got the crack combination for his next film, Chillu, and the result was even more magical. The film had three outstanding songs – Chaithram chaayam chalichu…, Oru vattom koodi…and Pokkuvyil ponnuruki… He was able to get the best out of composers like Raveendran (Mazha), Mohan Sithara (Vachanam), Ramesh Narayan (Rathrimazha) and M.G. Radhakrishnan (Kulam).
With Swathi Thirunal, he brought classical music close to Malayalam cinema. When Carnatic vocalists M. Balamuralikrishna and Neyyattinkara Vasudevan joined Yesudas and Chithra, the result was bliss for music lovers.