MUSIC IN MALAYALAM FILMS. Review on Tips on Malayalam Film Music

Old and new-a well heard demarcation everywhere. But the interpretation is little bit different in the case of songs –Malayalam songs. Old means GOLD and new means ROLD GOLD that also glitters .In the olden era of film industry, people were working in the field with an intense appetite for art, discarding that for food. Result was a handful of good films, good at every aspect. There were times when music and musicians were regarded as souls of the film. It was very difficult to get into a film as a musician or at least an assistant musician. Only those who could prove to be a perfect musician with strong classical background had their chances. When music is the soul, of course lyric is the blood and vocal is the breath, all creating a live film. All these became memories and we started saying ‘OLD is GOLD’.

That was not the case with Malayalam film songs up to the mid 90’s.Though western and folk were there, most songs were good soulful melodies. Even fast numbers had some amount of melody in them. People liked them and still like them. Composers like Shyam, Raveendran, M.G. Radhakrishnan, Johnson, Ouseppachan, Kannur Rajan, have given a lot to the Malayalis. Though they were not superb compared with what Devarajan, Baburaj, Dakshinamurthy etc had composed, there was no change in the enjoyment phase of a good song. The feeling was the same. But today’s people are going for useless songs! Musicians compose useless tunes to make the ‘useless’ happy. But the real ‘useless’ are not the people but the director of the film. A good example is the recent Police story in Malayalam, the 100% technically perfect movie after ‘Titanic’, felt from the director’s comments.

In this context I would like to say a few words about a young musician in Malayalam who gave lot of expectations to the industry as a hit maker after the success of a series of romantic albums from East Cost. Yes he is no one other than the engineer turned musician M. Jayachandran. The albums reveal his brilliance. As expected he became a most wanted in films, and his musical journey continues enviously. Though he was not new to film music(remember Rajaputhran, Sathyameva Jayathe) a wide exposure to the industry was possible only recently with the smash hit ‘Vaalkkannadi’.

Afterwards ‘Balettan, ’‘Gouriesankaram’‘Vellinakshathram’, ’Kakkakkarumpan’, ’Akale’, ’Youthfestival’, ’Mayilattam’, ’Natturajavu’, ’Sathyam’, ’Maambazhakkalam’, ’Perumazhakkalam’ and so on. Actually he is the only music director who got such a great opening to film industry. But is he 100% sincere to his work? How many of the above music albums are worthy of enjoyment? Only four-‘Vaalkkannadi’, ‘Gouriesankaram’, ‘Akale’ and ‘Perumazhakkalam’. All others including Balettan are near and below average albums with lots of repetitions. ‘Kalla Kalla Kochu Kalla(worst composition)’ is a great suffering. What about the songs of ‘Natturajavu’(Kottuvaal kuruvi makes people faint), another great fall by M.J? ‘Sathyam’, is the waste and worst album.(well praised by its great director). ‘Mayilattam’ is sung only on some Orchestration. But just look at the beauty of the songs of Vaalkkannadi, Gouriesankaram, Akale and Perumazhakkalam all soulful albums. How blended are those songs to the situation as well as to the heart? So a request to M.J is that please be selective in your profession, try to work with good directors and good stories. One good melody is better than ten fast numbers. So never loose melody from songs. Effectively utilize the classical background you have that is well seen in ‘Nadopasana’