On song

Varun Unni, who made a debut as music director with Annum Innum Ennum, is excited about the future

Varun Unni, music director Photo: K.K.Mustafah

The Malayalam film Annum Innum Ennum sank without a trace. Perhaps the film’s dry humour did not go well with a rather finicky audience. But the one song in the film (actually used as a promo) topped the charts keeping the memory of the film bobbing for a while. That song went viral with a huge fan following the moment it went online. If anyone really gained from this film it must be the young, Kochi-based music director Varun Unni.

Musical career

This engineering graduate’s mind about his future was made once he saw the response to his debut film song. “I know that making music a career is going to be tough and tricky. Especially at a time when songs have a short shelf life, the audio industry is in a quandary and new avenues are just opening up here. But I think there is still hope.

Annum Innum Ennum was a huge break for someone like me who always dreamt of making music independently. It would have been greatif the film had done well but you don’t get everything at one shot,” says Varun, who did his schooling at Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Vaduthala and engineering from Adi Sankara College of Engineering and Technology, Kalady.

In keeping with the current trend Varun’s debut song that begins ‘Ayyo Vishaada Meghamayi…’ too was marketed online and has not featured in an audio CD yet. Sung by Rahul Nambiar and Ramya Vijayakumar the song has a young, peppy, feel. “I have tried to make it sound like the Blues. Director Rajesh Nair has picturised it well. When the project began there were three songs. As the story proceeded and the shoot progressed it was cut to one. Two songs, a duet and solo were ready.”

Varun’s songs will be heard in forthcoming films Escape to Uganda , Rest in Peace and Gold’s Own Country . In between he has completed work on an album of five singles titled Smile . “The album will feature five singles sung by Shweta Mohan, and two promising singers, Sujit and Yasin. The tagline of the album is ‘Keep Smiling’ so you’ll have five happy songs. The album will come out during the first week of April.”

Trained from Kalabhavan, Varun was lead vocalist in city bands like

Highway Haze and

Flying Squad . “Music is always there. Along with a group of friends I’ll keep making songs and if there are no takers we will upload them on music sites,” says Varun.

The youngster’s journey has begun.