Bichu Thirumala, The Malayalam Lyricist, Passes Away

Noted Malayalam lyricist Bichu Thirumala (B Sivasankaran Nair) won the Kerala State Film Award for best lyricist for films in 1981. In 1991, he received the same award for the Rajasenan-directed film for the second time. He was renowned for a lot of his work especially the screenplay for the movie 'Shakthi'. Thirumala also wrote all the lyrics for Mohanlal's debut film 'Manjil Virinje Pookal'.

The 80-year-old lyricist passed away at a private hospital on  Friday. Since Wednesday, following a heart attack, he was put on ventilator support.

He begun his career with the 1972 Malayalam film 'Bhaja Govindam'. Although this movie did not make it to the big screens, Thirumala's first song Brahma Muhoorthathil was a hit instantly.

The song was aired on Radio Ceylon in the early 1970s. G Devarajan, V Dakshinamurthy, MS Baburaj, K Raghavan, MS Viswanathan, AT Ummer, Shyam, Jerry Amaldev, Johnson, Ouseppachan, Ilaiyaraaja, and AR Rahman were among the notable composers he worked with later.

Along with ONV Kurup, he is noted for writing songs that are notable for their beautiful word arrangement. AR Rahman's soundtrack for the film was written by Bichu Thirumala. In a few Malayalam films, Thirumala also served as music director as well.

He moved to Chennai with a penchant for film filmmaking after graduating from University College, Thiruvananthapuram, with a degree in Economics.

He finally got the chance to work under M Krishnan Nair after a long wait. In the film, he worked as an assistant director.