Alappuzha: "The only wealth bestowed upon me by my father was music. Because of it, I never had to bow my head before anyone," read a Facebook post from Kannan on the day of his father's fourth death anniversary.
Unlike his father, noted musician Kavaloor Balan, Suraj, popularly known as Kannan, took hesitant steps into the world of music and came into the world of orchestra. "There is no shortcut in music. You have to study hard to have a strong base or else you will have to bow down before others," Kannan used to say.
Kannan dreamt of becoming a music director but he couldn't fulfill his dream. However, he became a part of many hit numbers in Malayalam. There were many music directors who wanted Kannan to do the orchestration once they decided on the songs and this was irrespective of the generation.
From the first generation of music directors such as V. Dakshinamoorthy, K. Raghavan, and M.K. Arjunan to Ravindran, M.G. Radhakrishnan, Ramesh Narayanan, Ousephachan, Johnson, Beni Ignatius, M. Jayachandran, Jaison J. Nair, Balabaskar, Raghu Kumar, Vidyadharan, Perumbavoor G. Ravindranath, Jayvijaya, Alphonse, Jassi Gift, Gopi Sundar, Sojo.... the list will go on. If the list of all music directors for whom Kannan had done orchestra is taken as a yardstick to measure his success, one can undoubtedly say that he had a very successful career.
Kannan's hand was there behind the making of many hit numbers in Malayalam. Enthu sugamani nilavu (Nammal), Manjakilliyude Moolipattunde (Kanmadam), Chanjadiyadi Urangu Ni (Makalku), Laali (Kalimannu), Pattil... E Pattil (Pranayam) were some of the ever-favourites among his works.
From 1990, Kannan was an integral part Malayalam film industry's music circuit. However, he remained largely anonymous. But Keralites started noticing Kannan through TV shows, especially the music reality shows. Kannan was actively involved in Mazhavil Manorama's popular music reality show Indian Voice.
During last Onam, Kannan brought out an album. The lyrics were written by Chitoor Gopi. Kannan, who had gone through many travails in life, was a cancer survivor. As if to remember those hard days, Kannan readily took part in the music programme organised by Dr Gangadharan for cancer patients.
In a life dedicated to music, Kannan experienced many highs as well as lows. Music director M. Jayachandran's eyes turned moist when he remembered about Kannan. "I have known him since he was nine. He was at the same time my assistant musician as well as my brother," his voice broke.