Master of Malayalam cinema melodies, MK Arjunan passes away at 84
Thiruvananthapuram: Veteran music composer M K Arjunan, known for his mellifluous melodies in Malayalam cinema, died in the wee hours of Monday at his house in Kochi, family sources said.
He was 84 and was suffering from age related ailments, they said.
In a career spanning over five decades, Arjunan, popularly known as Arjunan master in the industry, set scores for over 200 songs in nearly 600 movies. Most of his songs were all-time super hits.
His evergreen melodies have placed master Arjunan among the legendary composers of Malayalam cinema like G Devarajan, V Dakshinamoorthy and M S Baburaj.
Arjunan was also known for recording the first song of legendary Carnatic vocalist and playback singer K J Yesudas when the latter was just 16 years old and gave the chance to Oscar winning musician A R Rahman to play the keyboard in a film.
Born in a family in Fort Kochi on March 1, 1936, Arjunan master entered into the world of composing by giving tunes for theatre songs. His first break in cinema came with 1968 movie "Karutha Paurnami" and there was no looking back after that.
"Kasthoori manakkunnallo kaattee", "thanka bhasma kuriyiyta", "yadukula rarhi devanevide", " chettikulangara bharani naalil" are among his evergreen hits.
Arjunan master worked with the doyens of Malayalam movie lyrics like Vayalar and P Bhaskaan but his collaboration with lyricist Sreekumaran Thampi is rated as of the most popular composer-lyricist pair in the industry.
Though he got awards and accolades for theatre songs many times, the composer had to wait till 2017 to receive the best music composer title in a film.
He received the state award for the song in Jayaraj directed movie "Bhayanakam" in 2017. Kerala Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, was among those who condoled his passing away.
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Aman Gupta sides with Piyush Goyal’s comments on Indian startups to focus on deep tech
New Delhi, Apr 06 (PTI): boAt co-founder Aman Gupta has come out in support of Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal's recent remarks urging Indian startups to focus more on deep-tech innovation. Gupta's comments come amid an ongoing debate within the startup ecosystem where several founders have countered Goyal's critique of consumer-focused ventures like food delivery and luxury goods startups.
Gupta took to social media platform X to echo Goyal's call for startups to move beyond consumer-centric models like food delivery and fantasy sports apps and instead prioritise technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, and quantum computing.
"It's not every day that the government asks founders to dream bigger. But at Startup Mahakumbh, that's exactly what happened. I was there. I heard the full speech. Hon. Minister @PiyushGoyal Ji isn't against founders. He believes in us. His point was simple: India has come far, but to lead the world...we need to aim higher.
"It reminded me of something I say often on Shark Tank India, If you want to build a world-class product, you must know your competition. That applies to India too," Gupta wrote.
The minister, during the inaugural of Startup Mahakumbh on Thursday, asked the Indian startup community to shift their focus from grocery delivery and ice cream making to high-tech sectors like semiconductors, machine learning, robotics, and artificial intelligence.
He had questioned Indian food delivery startups for turning unemployed youth into cheap labour.
"Are we going to be happy being delivery boys and girls... Is that the destiny of India...this is not a startup, this is entrepreneurship... What the other side is doing -- robotics, machine learning, 3D manufacturing and next generation factories," Goyal said, showing a slide titled "India vs China. The Startup Reality Check".
The minister had pointed out that only 1,000 of India's 1.57 lakh recognized startups operate in deep-tech spaces-a situation he described as "disturbing" given India's aspirations to become a developed nation by 2047.
Startup founders including Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha, Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu, and Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma have countered Goyal's comments.
Gupta, however, said pitching the country against China is a smart strategy.
"Benchmarking against China, the US, or anyone else -- isn't weakness. It's a smart strategy. We're already the 3rd largest startup ecosystem in the world and the fastest-growing major economy. But if we want to be No.1, we need to also go deep into AI, deep tech, climate, mobility, and infra. We need LLMs and innovation stacks that compete on global standards.
"And to make that happen, we also need Scientific risk, More patient capital, Founder-policymaker collaboration and a long-term national vision," Gupta wrote.
It’s not every day that the government asks founders to dream bigger.
— Aman Gupta (@amangupta0303) April 6, 2025
But at Startup Mahakumbh, that’s exactly what happened. I was there. I heard the full speech. Hon. Minister @PiyushGoyal Ji isn’t against founders. He believes in us.His point was simple: India has come far,… pic.twitter.com/bA4ontAz1M
