The sound of Malayalam music is changing and singers themselves are being the change.
The voices
A week ago playback singer Jyotsna released her debut composition, ‘Ini varumo’, and its music video. The same evening, ‘Ana-al Haq’, a music video featuring Ranjini Jose was launched at another function. Manjari launched her third music video, the second one she composed, yesterday.
Jyotsna in her video, ‘Ini varumo’
Leading singers in Malayalam are on song, making themselves heard with new experiments in music. Sachin Warrier, Hesham Abdul Wahab, Gowri Lekshmy, Sayanora, Vidhu Prathap...are some of the singers who are voicing a new soundscape in Malayalam, thanks to the changing idioms of independent music.
Melody makers
It wasn’t something that happened out of the blue for any of them. “It was a dream come true. I used to score tunes and record it on my mobile. ‘Ini varumo’ was one of them," says Jyotsna. For Sayanora, composing music de-stressed her and ‘Uyire’ was such a stress-buster.
Jyotsna
A hardcore Michael Jackson fan, Vidhu always wanted to do independent music. “There is a lot of scope to experiment, it gives you a lot of freedom. ‘Nangeli’ gave me that opportunity. I do compose for small ventures with my friends and we are planning to bring out a new composition next year,” he says.
Keys to a song
Composing is a new game, say the musicians. “When you work in a film, your attachment with the film or the character is for three or four hours whereas when you make your song the satisfaction you get is different,” says Sachin, who is doing solo shows featuring his own compositions. Manjari seconds that, saying: “You learn a lot when you go through the whole process of creating a new tune.”
Manjari in her video, ‘Namo narayana’
While her first single was a Hindi number composed by Santosh Nair, she turned composer with ‘Anuragam’.
Ranjini is perhaps the veteran having dabbled in independent music quite early in her career, one of her first songs being ‘O nilaave’ composed by Shaan Rahman. She sang in two more albums, before releasing her own composition, ‘Onam Rocks’ in 2013.
“Having grown up watching the likes of Rageswari, Sunita Rao and others, indie music has always been my favourite genre. Many singers in Tamil have released their songs and I feel happy that my friends in Malayalam are joining the fray. Film music is not the ultimate destination, we have had musicians who have proved that from time to time,” says Ranjini.
And the music videos
Most of these singers have produced the videos on their own. Sachin confides that having spent all his savings on song production, his team of friends decided to go on a trip to make the video!
Sachin Warrier
“But then I also feel that a song should go beyond the video, it should connect with actual life and take on new flavours from time to time...”
The songsters feel that their playback singer-fame has helped them to take the song to more people and a well-shot music video completes the product. Almost all of them have been featured in their respective music videos. While Manjari calls it “fun-filled moments”, for Jyotsna and Sayanora, it was something they did because of their friends. “It is my baby and so they said that I should be in it. With my husband, Sreekanth, acting in it, it became even more special,” Jyotsna says.
Sayanora
The visualisation of the theme was quite challenging in her case, says Ranjini. “I am not an Indian woman in the video and therefore I went for the head gear, complementing my dress, thus placing her in the land where the Prophet lived,” she says.
Thumbs-up for social media
They insist that the change wouldn’t have happened but for social media. “At present, a post of your work on YouTube or Facebook gets the artiste instant feedback, very different from the time when we started out. Now, if you have the talent, recognition will follow,” says Sayanora.
Best shots
The artistes have gone for renowned directors and cinematographers to make their music videos. Manjari’s video was directed by V.K. Prakash. Sachin had his friend Ganesh Raj (director of Anandam ) directing the video with camera by Anend C. Chandran, cinematographer of Premam . Jyotsna’s song was directed by Madhu C. Narayanan, associate of Aashiq Abu, while camera is by Jimshi Khalid. Ranjini’s video, with lyrics by Shabareesh Varma and directed by Ambili C. Rengan has Neil D’ Cunha as the cinematographer.
Experimental notes
The songs and videos are different in terms of themes and treatment as well. For example, Hesham has taken the Sufi route and his album ‘Qaddam Badha’ has songs in five languages; Ranjini’s ‘Ana-al-Haq’, which conveys the message that God is within yourself is a novel take on the Sufi genre; Manjari’s ‘Namo narayana’, a rearrangement of the famous kriti, ‘Karuna cheyvan’, is a plea on behalf of all women who continue to be oppressed; Sachin’s ‘Naam’ has a philosophical flavour, with its first four lines taken from Poonthanam’s Jnanappana .
