They say that love is universal. Unnikrishnan P.V., a city-based musician and music composer, celebrates the “universality of love” with six anthems on romance in an album titled ‘One Love.' The album, which features melodies sung by actor Suresh Gopi and his wife, Radhika, and actor Saranya Mohan, and Vijay Madhav of Idea Star Singer -fame is all set to release right in time for Valentine's Day.
“The album is a mix of Malayalam and Tamil songs and has music that I composed. Lyrics have been written by Rajeev Alunkal and a newbie scriptwriter, Sreenath,” says Unnikrishnan, whose other works include themes and jingles for Vodafone Comedy Stars on Asianet, Star Utsav on Asianet Plus, and Jaihind TV's new serial Kudumbasametham Manikutti , besides quite a few albums and music videos in Malayalam, Tamil, and Kannada.
Mix of genres
“To go with the theme, the album comprises love songs in a mix of genres – Western music, Carnatic classical, a sort of a qawwali-inspired Mappilappattu, and so on,” adds Unnikrishnan. The idea for this latest “celebrity album,” which has been a year-and-a-half in the making, arose out of his friendship with singer Vijay Madhav, whom he met on the set of Star Utsav .
“We thought it would be great to work together and from a purely marketing perspective we decided to rope in celebrities to sing for the album,” says Unnikrishnan.
The duo zeroed in on Suresh Gopi and Radhika. “Suresh ettan has an ear for music and is actually more talented a singer than you would deem possible, and that's especially when he gets into the swing of things. Whatever limitation he has of not being a trained singer, he makes up for with his unbridled enthusiasm. It was also a bonus to get Radhika chechi on board because she is a trained singer (under Omanakutty teacher) and she herself has been training Suresh ettan to sing!” adds Unnikrishnan. Suresh has sung two songs for the album – Neelamayil Peeliyayi… and Onnu Uriyadan… , the latter a duet with his wife.
Up-an-coming actor Sharanya is also a trained singer and has sung a duet in the album as has actor Ananya, while Vijay Madhav has sung three of the duets. “The final song of the album will be sung by actor Nithya Menen, if all works out,” says Unnikrishnan.
Unnikrishnan is also working on a number called Thadaka… (inspired from the poem Thadaka Enna Dravida Rajakumari ) for which he has composed a “qawwali-inspired” tune. He has also completed the composition of a Kannada movie, tentatively titled Rainbow Colony .
