Biography

Samuel Joseph (born 1937), better known as Shyam, is a music composer who works in Malayalam cinema. From the mid-1970s to the late 1980s, Shyam had a prolific run as a composer in the Malayalam film industry, composing for nearly 200 films. Working with all major directors of the time, Shyam had scored many hits of Jayan and the early films of Mammootty and Mohanlal. He has won the Kerala State Film Awards for Best Music Director twice. Shyam apprenticed under maestros M. S. Viswanathan and Salil Chowdhury, the former renaming him 'Shyam'. He has been an assistant for various music directors including Salil Chowdhury, Rajan Nagendra, Satyam, S. Rajeswara Rao, Pendyala Nageswara Rao, AM Raja, TG Lingappa etc for several years before venturing as an independent music director. He has also worked as a lead violinist with famous composers like C. Ramachandra, V Dakshinamoorthi, Naushad, Madan Mohan, G. Devarajan, Bombay Ravi, RD Burman etc. Along with his training in western violin he is also trained in carnatic classical violin under the baton of legendary classical violinist Lalgudi Jayaraman. He debuted as an independent film composer in Malayalam cinema through the 1974 film, Manyasree Viswamithran directed by actor Madhu. All the tracks from the movie including Kettille Kottayathoru became a huge success.