M. Jayachandran

Madhusoodanan Nair Jayachandran, commonly known as M. Jayachandran, is a film score composer, singer, and musician in Indian films. He has won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Music Director for a record number of seven times. In 2005, he also won the state award for best male singer. In 2015, he won the National Film Award for Best Music Direction for the film Ennu Ninte Moideen. He has composed music for more than one hundred films.

He began his career in the film industry as a playback singer for the movie Vasudha in 1992, then became an assistant to Malayalam music director G. Devarajan. In 1995, he became an independent music director through the film Chantha.

Jayachandran was born on June 14, 1971 at Thiruvananthapuram. He began learning Carnatic music at the age of 5 under Attingal Harihara Iyer and later under Perumbavoor G. Raveendranath. Thereafter, he was a student of Neyyattinkara Mohanachandran for 18 years. He won the Carnatic vocal competition at the Kerala University youth festival four times in a row from 1987 to 1990. He completed his graduation in Electrical Engineering from TKM College of Engineering and College of Engineering, Trivandrum.

Jayachandran is the younger among the two sons of late Madhusoodanan Nair (d. 2014) and late Vijaya Nair (d. 2009), born on 14 June 1971. He has an elder brother named Prakash Chandran. He worked at Asianet before taking up full-time music direction. He married Priya on 12 November 1995, and has two sons. He has been on the judging panel of musical reality shows in Malayalam television.