Music director Arrora is feeling “adipoli” – that’s fun and fantastic, in local parlance. Who wouldn’t be? Ever since its release last weekend, the song ‘Adichu Polikkam’ from his debut Malayalam album, Peruchazhi , the upcoming Mohanlal comedy, has already had music buffs clapping to its peppy beats even as they laugh out loud at the antics of the stars on screen.
“Forget that it’s a Malayalam movie or that it’s my debut; it’s a Lal ettan film!” crows Arrora, his enthusiasm for the actor and the film unbridled, over the phone from Chennai, where he is based. “I’m over the moon because very few gen next music directors can say that they debuted in the Malayalam industry, or any industry, for that matter, with a superstar film,” explains the genial youngster, sparing a few moments in between completing sound recording of the film, directed by Arun Vaidyanathan. The movie is set for release on August 29.
Arrora has composed six tracks of different genres for Peruchazhi . ‘Po Mone Dinesha’, for instance, is a groovy item song, sung by Jyotsna [Andrea Jeremiah has sung the film version], inspired by Lalettan’s famous ‘Nee Po Mone Dinesha’ punch line from Narasimham . “The film is also a celebration of Mohanlal and the director wanted to incorporate it in the film,” says Arrora. ‘Enthu Cheiyyan’, another number, is a classical melody by vocalist Bombay Jayashri, her first Malayalam number after a song in Ore Kada l (2007), while ‘United States of Adipolica’, is packed with hip hop beats. The sixth song, ‘Don’t Mess With Me’, the “serious” theme song of the film, has been sung by rap artiste Blaaze, who has also written its lyrics. “I can’t reveal much about Peruchazhi , other than it’s a full on riot. In keeping with the theme, all the songs are equally over the top,” says the music director, with a chuckle.
Arrora, whose real name is Navin Iyer, is actually a well-known, classically-trained, flautist in Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam movies, who has played the flute for many top music directors such as A.R. Rahman, G.V. Prakash, Vishal Shekar, Ouseppachan and Gopi Sundar, to name a few. “I started learning the flute when I was five years old, having trained under several maestros including T.V. Gopalakrishnan. I have always had a passion for music, which eventually turned into a passion for film music. I am first and foremost an instrumentalist and still play the flute for music directors. I played the flute for Peruchazhi . But I find working under others a bit limiting because you won’t really have the freedom to improvise,” he says. Music buffs in Kerala would, perhaps, also recognise the youngster as the voice behind the haunting melody ‘Oru Kadalai’ in Ore Kadal and the ‘Khalbilethi’ chorus in the eponymous song from Anwar . He’s also composed a lot of jingles for ads (Pothys, Ramraj, Sreekumaran Silks, and the likes), several of them with Prakash, before turning film composer last year with hit Tamil rom-com Kalyana Samayal Saadham . “Director Arun was the producer of the movie and remembered me for Peruchazhi , incidentally, his comeback film after the indie Tamil flick Achamundu, Achamundu ,” he explains. “On that note, my heartfelt thanks to Arun – and producers Sandra Thomas and Vijay Babu too – for taking a gamble on a relatively unknown youngster; for trusting me to compose music for what is one of the biggest films of the year and, also for giving me a free run with the soundtrack,” he adds.
