“I wish my father was alive now…,” says Naveen Madhav. His father – the late M. Raveendran, ace music director, would have been proud that his son has composed and sung in Malayalam.
His album, featuring the single ‘Uyire’ has been well-received. And Naveen, who has many hits to his credit in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada, is obviously excited.
“Having been born and brought up in Chennai, my Malayalam diction is not very good. My father really wanted me to work on my pronunciation. He gave me a song in Ente Hrudayathinte Udama , but it was there only in the film’s original soundtrack. I’ve also sung for two other Malayalam movies, but they didn’t get noticed. So this album means a lot for me,” he says, adding: “It is quite disappointing that my father didn’t live to see any of his children making a mark in the industry.” Twins Rajan, a filmmaker, and Sajan, a composer, are elder to Naveen.
‘Uyire’ launched by Sony Music Entertainment, features Naveen and Rita Thyagarajan. Lyrics is by Vinukrishnan, who wrote for Matinee .
Naveen began his career by singing harmony for A.R. Rahman in Lagaan .
His solo debut was for composer D. Imman in Kovai Brothers (2001). ‘Kozhi veda kozhi…’ from Something Something was his first hit and then followed the mega hit ‘Pokkiri Pongal’ (Pokkiri). Songs such as ‘Daddy mummy veettil illa…’ (Villu) , ‘My name is Billa…’ (Billa), ‘Aathadi aathadi’ (Ayyanar) … shot him into the limelight.
“I’ve sung some 60 opening songs because composers feel my voice suits such fast songs! But now I do request certain composers for slow, melodious numbers...,” he says with a laugh.
At present, he is working on a song in memory of his father and will follow it with a tri-lingual song on peace.
* His favourite song of his father: “‘Sukhamo devi…’. With just two words, he made the pallavi… Amazing creativity…”
