“Ordinary' (the film) has extraordinary songs,” he says in his husky voice and laughs out loud, because he has composed the music. It's no laughing matter that almost every song he has composed is a hit, most big, some not-so-big, right from ‘Vennila chandana kinnam…' to ‘Akkare ninnoru poonkattu…' Sitting here in the room at Gokulam Park is Vidyasagar, music director, who was in the city for the audio release of the movie, ‘Ordinary', directed by Sugeeth, Kamal's long-time assistant, striking out on his own now.
Six songs
“What's special about the songs (six altogether) in this film is that composer Vidyadharan Master has sung a folk song. Apart from K. J. Yesudas, Karthik, Madhu Balakrishnan, Shreya Ghosal and reality show fame Sannidhanan have sung. There are all genres of music too,” Vidyasagar says. Rajeev Nair, the film's producer, has written the lyrics.
Mollywood is deeply in love with Vidyasagar. Ever since he created the unforgettable tunes of ‘Azhakiya Ravanan', he has been in great demand for Malayalis simply lapped up his music. ‘Vennila chandana kinnam…' featuring Kavya Madhavan as a child artiste and ‘Pranaya mani…,' which won Sujatha a State award, firmly entrenched Vidyasagar here. “Of course, I can speak Malayalam,” he states and when you ask him to reply in Malayalam, he does it much better than many of these TV anchors. He makes sure that he knows the meanings of the words before he gives them a musical identity.
All genres
Melodies are close to his heart but he is an ace when it comes to the ‘dappankuthu' department also. Remember ‘Chingamasam…' in ‘Meesha Madhavan'? “All genres of music have their own beauty. I listen to world music a lot”, says Vidyasagar who started learning Western classical music early in his life. Traditional ragas abound in our music, whether it is film music or light songs. Likewise, in world music, the same ragas can be traced, Vidyasagar says. Mohanam and Revathi ragas are dominant in most of Chinese music, while Scottish music has a lot of Sankarabharanam.
“I am still learning music. Madurai G. S. Mani was my guru, and later M. Balamuralikrishna taught me a lot.” Though his mother tongue is Telugu, Vidyasagar grew up in Tamil Nadu. His Tamil songs, from around 325 movies, dwarf the number in his mother tongue, about 70 and his oeuvre in Malayalam is almost equal to that. With three films in Hindi and three in Kannada, his has been a busy career. “I have introduced more than 30 new voices so far. Rimi Tomy's is one,” he says, with a twinkle in his eye and names a couple of more singers like Sreekumar in ‘Neelathamara', Vidhu Pratap, Devanand. “In Lal Jose's new film, ‘Diamond Necklace, I have introduced another new voice, that of Nivas”. Incidentally, Vijay Yesudas started his singing career in his Onam album, ‘Onakaineetam,' which has been Vidyasagar's only non-film album. “I brought Shankar Mahadevan to Malayalam through ‘Chingamasam…' and Hariharan through ‘O..Dilruba…'
Reality shows
This brings us to reality shows. He has yet to play the role of a judge, which a majority of music directors are busy doing on the small screen. Yes, he has not done it so far, Vidyasagar agrees, but ‘who knows what awaits me tomorrow,' he says in a non-committal vein.
Which are his favourites in Malayalam? Like all diplomatic artistes in tinsel world, he shies away from naming them. But those of us who have heard his songs cannot forget the haunting ‘Varamanjaladiya…', ‘Kannadi koodum…', ‘Confusion theerkaname…', or ‘Ethrayo janmamay…', ‘Choolamadichu…', and his songs in ‘Rock n' Roll', the delightful ‘Omama mama chandamama…' and ‘Raverayai poove…' which has few parallels in that genre. And awards? The national award for Best Music Director came to him in 2005 for a movie in his native Telugu, ‘Swarabhishekam'. Vidyasagar got several State awards, both from Kerala and Tamil Nadu for his music in several films, including ‘Azhakiya Ravanan', ‘Pranaya Varnangal', ‘Devadoothan', ‘Mozhi', ‘Poovellam Un Vasam.' And recognition from the channels for ‘Mulla' and ‘Neelathamara,' which topped the charts for a long time.
In an age when the number of songs in movies is dwindling, the fact that Vidyasagar has composed six songs for his latest film, ‘Ordinary', points to the fact that good playback music still finds a ready market among music lovers.
