THALASSERY, KERALA: Eminent music director K Raghavan, who infused Malayalam cinema music with a local flavour through his popular numbers, died in a hospital here on Saturday.

Raghavan (99) was keeping unwell for some time and was admitted to the co-operative hospital here a few days back, family sources said.

Known as Raghavan Master among colleagues and fans, he shot to fame through the 1950s hit “Neelakkuyil”, an early realistic movie directed jointly by Ramu Karyat and P Bhaskaran. Raghavan himself sang one of the most popular songs in that film. He had been working in the industry for more than five decades.

Since then he had rendered music for over 400 films, which included milestone Malayalam movies like ‘Nirmalyam’, ‘Utharayanam’, ‘Nagaramendi’, ‘Unniyarcha’, ‘Ramanan’ and ‘Kallichellamma.’

His partnership with lyricist P Bhaskaran resulted in a large number of hits which helped many movies in the 1960s and 70s become big hits.

A staff artist of All India Radio for long, he had also made significant contributions to Malayalam light music and drama.

He was the recipient of several honours, including Padma Shree and Kerala Government’s highest film honour J C Daniel award.