Malayalam cinema, of late, has seen the blooming of young women music composers such as playback singers Sayanora Philip and Sithara Krishnakumar. Charu Hariharan joins that growing list of music directors by making her debut as a composer with the movie Purple . Directed by debutant Parthasarathi, the movie will feature three songs composed by Charu.
A multifaceted musician — a singer, percussionist, lyricist and programmer—this is not her first attempt at composing. She composed a Tamil song, Moodi thuranthidum , a Valentine’s Day number, in 2013. Daughter of veteran musician B.Arundhati, she has also scored music for documentaries and short films. In fact, she was supposed to make her debut as a composer with a Malayalam film in 2013, but that project got stalled.
Purple , she says, is about a college music band and will have six songs in all. The rest of the songs are composed by 4 Musics. Director Vinayan’s son, Vishnu Vinayan, plays the lead and Samuel Robinson ( Sudani from Nigeria -fame) is the villain. “Vinayan sir had met me at an event in Kochi and after listening to a few of my compositions, he had suggested my name to the director,” she says.
She has already finished recording two solos sung by Vijay Yesudas and Shweta Mohan. The third, a multi-singer number, will be recorded later. “I started the recording after taking the blessings of Das [K.J. Yesudas] sir. It was an exciting and a humbling experience to work with these singers,” says Charu. Lyrics are by Harinarayanan.
Meanwhile, she is off to Sweden for a two-month tour to perform with the multi-cultural band Världens. She sings and plays several instruments, including the mridangam and ganjira. “We are bringing out our second album and there will be a release tour covering Sweden, Norway and Denmark,” she says. Play on Charu.