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Striking a musical chord
| Prithviraj joins the select list of actors like Vikram, Mohanlal and Mamta Mohandas who are making a mark as singers too, writes Saraswathy Nagarajan |
Starry notes Prithviraj
Mollywood seems to be alive with the sound of music with many of our actors like Mohanlal, Manju Warrier, Vineeth Sreenivasan and Mamta Mohandas giving playback singers a run for their money. The latest to join the bandwagon is Prithviraj who has sung a foot-tapping number – the title song, ‘Suryamugham Ini Oru Puthiyamugham...’ – in his latest film ‘Puthiya Mugham’ that is releasing this week.
Says music director Deepak Dev: “Although Prithviraj needed a lot of persuasion to sing the song, I was confident he could do it. He had dropped into my home studio in Kochi when I was composing the songs for ‘Puthiya Mugham.’ I was trying out some numbers on my piano and we had a jamming session. That is when I realised he is a good singer.”
Bollywood has always had singing stars beginning with K.L. Saigal, Kanan Bala, Ashok Kumar, Suraiya …going on to the evergreen Kishore Kumar. And now even the nasal Himesh Reshammiya has a fan following. Amitabh Bachchan also had lent his voice for films like ‘Laawaris’ (‘Mere Anagane Mein’) and ‘Silsila.’
Mohanlal
In Kollywood, the latest trend of the stars singing in their films has seen Vikram sing for ‘Kanthasasmy.’ Dhanush has sung a song in ‘Madrasapattinam’ and Surya is to sing in ‘Singam.’
Although there were many Mollywood stars who could carry a tune, most of the directors preferred to entrust the actual singing to trusted playback singers. There were a few experiments here and there with Adoor Bhasi or the versatile Balachandran Menon singing in a movie or two.
Mammootty
Among stars in the big league in Malayalam cinema, it was Mohanlal who won kudos in the music arena too by singing his songs in few of his films. Who can forget the lilting duet ‘Kaithapoovin…’ that he sang with the one and only Manju Warrier in T.K. Rajeevkumar’s ‘Kanezhuthi Pottumthottu.’ Or ‘Karu karuthoru..’ in ‘Balettan.’ The latest hit is Mohanlal’s folksy number (‘Annarakannaa vaa, poovaala…’) in Blessy’s ‘Bhramaram’ that has found a safe niche on the charts.
Says Blessy: “The situation was perfect for Mohanlal’s voice. It has dialogues in between and so it would have unnatural for someone to break in and sing in another voice. Moreover, we all know Mohanlal the singer.”
Kavya Madhavan
Music director M.Jayachandran also has worked with the superstar in ‘Balettan’ for the song ‘Karu karuthoru…’
Music sense
Says the composer: “Mohanlal has music sense and he is dedicated. We required a couple of takes for the song and he patiently waited till he got it right.” He emphasises that if the situation warrants it and if the actor can sing, then it would be perfect for the actor himself/herself to sing the song.
Perhaps it is the situation in the film that has motivated film director Jairaj to have Mammootty singing in his film ‘Loudspeaker.’ “It is a Christmas carol and since my fans will have to face the music, I will be singing only a few lines,” laughs Mammootty.
Meanwhile Mamta Mohandas has already become a rocking singing sensation in Tamil and Telugu though she has not sung a song in her native Malayalam. She even won a Filmfare award for her debut number ‘Rakhee Rakhee’ in Tamil. Another hit of hers is ‘Daddy Mummy’ in ‘Villu.’
In an interview, Mamta had said: “I have always wanted to be a singer but I never thought I would reach there because my life had taken a different direction with acting. But am grateful that destiny brought me back.”
Mamta Mohandas
Kavya is another leading lady who showed that she could hit the right notes too by singing a song in an album, the lyrics of which were written by her.
Waiting in the wings are talented singers like Jairam, Indrajith, Suresh Gopi, Samvratha Sunil, Meera Nandan and so on.
Singing star
“The song…in a way encapsulates Prithviraj’s attitude and personality. It was perfect for his character Krishakumar in ‘Puthiya Mugham.’ The song was recorded after he finished the dubbing.
So there was no need for me to explain the situation or the mood the song,” says Deepak Dev who tuned lyrics by Kaithappuram Damadaran Namboothiri.
Deepak says that even the “feel of the song” was perfect as Prithviraj sang it. “At one point during the recording, there was a pause and Prithivi stopped. But I told him to continue as it was Krishnakumar, a young engineering student who was singing the song and not a professional playback singer,” adds Deepak who has scored a winner with the songs of the film.
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