Melody in the air

KOCHI: When you hear Nellai Chandrasekharan whistle his tunes, you get the wonderful sensation of listening to the actual song. Without any other instrument, he captures the soul and beauty of the original. His whistling is a natural gift which he has polished through years of unstinting effort and devotion.Having grown up in an orthodox family, his parents never supported his talent though. They would often scold him and repeat that no good would come out of such pursuits. But such was Chandrasekharan’s love for music that he would start whistling as soon as he stepped out of the house. He remembers his childhood being a rather tough one and how he found solace in whistling old Malayalam songs. He would go to the theatre only to listen to film songs. “Many a times because of not having enough money to buy tickets I used to sneak outside the film theatres,” recollects Chandrasekharan.  The other alternative to cinema was radio, but at that time only two or three households owned it in his village ‘Rapal’ (in Thrissur. "I used to listen to their radio but could only hear the music... could not catch most of the wordings but used to hum the songs and this in turn led to whistling,” says the enthusiastic 60-year-old. He has been whistling tunes of songs from the age of 15 years and has come a long way after much struggle. His favourite Malayalam songs are ‘Poonthen aruvi...’, ‘Ponmudi puzhayudey anujathi...’, ‘Devi sridevi...’, and ‘Paadam namukku padam...’He tells people that if a person wants to whistle, one should first have love for music and be hardworking. “Breath control is an important aspect of whistling. It’s very difficult to hold one’s breath and whistle non-stop but constant practice will make you achieve it,” he says. Chandrasekharan.Among all the songs, Chandrasekharan particularly loves to whistle sad songs. “Sad songs capture emotions and create a different mood. It is easy to whistle sad songs.” he says. Being an obedient son, he worked at the  Harrison Malayalam tea plantation industry and looked after his family but continued with his passion. He whistles whenever he gets free time while travelling in a bus or train for office or while walking on deserted pavements.Apart from Malayalam songs, his love for Hindi songs grew when he spent 10 years in Gujarat in an official capacity. He loves all Mohammed Rafi, R D Burman, Kishore Kumar and Laxmikant Pyarelal songs. He loves to whistle Rafi’s hit song ‘Babul ki duaen leti ja’ from the film Neel Kamal. Chandrasekharan is not only a whistler but also a writer. He has written articles and features in Malayalam newspapers. His noted feature is a travelogue written on the villages of our state. This man of versatile tastes and preferences performs stage shows and also does radio.  Now that he has retired and fulfilled his family duties, Chandrashekhar is finally able to pursue his first love. Whistling is a passion and his heart years to showcase his unrecogonised talent before a larger audience. In a society where we are brought up with the notion that whistling is a bad habit, here is a person who has trodden a different path to show that whistling could very well be an art by itself if performed well.