Aalaap Raju, who earned his big break with ‘Ennamo edho…’ in Ko composed by Harris Jayaraj, is much excited about working in Malayalam again, in Raaj Prabhavathy Menon’s Buddy, which releases today. The song ‘Ukkelele…’, a duet with Srinivas, is only Aalaap’s second film song in Malayalam, in spite of having a strong connect with Kerala. He first sang ‘Muthodu muthu…in 101 Weddings , for Deepak Dev.
“I always wonder why I don’t get songs in Malayalam. Maybe because I stay in Chennai,” says Aalaap, son of singers J.M. Raju and Latha Raju and grandson of yesteryear voice, Shantha P. Nair. His Malayalam song ‘Nenjodu cherthu’ from the album Yuvvh was a huge hit, especially on YouTube.
The singer was in the capital city for the promotion of Buddy along with its composer Navaneeth Sunder, who is making his debut in Malayalam.
Aalaap has been concentrating on “promoting independent music” through Rahlaap, a band formed by singer Rahul Nambiar and Aalaap which goes with the tagline, “music beyond genre” and his four-piece instrumental band, Project Yuj, which focuses on “neo Carnatic funk”.
Very busy in Kollywood, Aalaap also devotes his time for live shows, both as singer and guitarist. “I enjoy both and it is quite a delight playing the instrument while singing,” says Aalaap, who has performed with prominent artistes such as T.V. Gopalakrishnan, Dr. L. Subramaniam and Frank Dubier and has sung for leading composers in Kollywood.
A huge fan of S.P. Balasubramaniam, Aalaap cherishes the moment when P.B. Srinivas commented that he “liked my voice.” All said and done, his all-time favourites are his parents.
“Many don’t know the amount of work they have done. Then, of course, there is my grandmother whose song ‘Thumbi, thumbi…’ is right up there in my list of favourites,” says Aalaap.
