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The Vaseegara guy

Photo:Thulasi Kakkat

Sweet success Harris Jayaraj may soon compose a tune for a Malayalam film

The ‘Vaseegara…’ guy certainly charmed me and a few other fellow Malayalis with his down-to-earth manners. The shy hit maker’s songs in ‘Anniyan’, ‘Sathyam’ and ‘Minnale’ are as familiar to Malayalis as they are to Tamil listeners. “Is it?” he asked, kind of shocked, sitting in his room at Le Meridien. He seemed quite at home after that, and disclosed that he would probably enter the Malayalam film ind ustry as a composer with a Mohanlal movie, the second part of ‘Yodha’. He was in the city to release the album, ‘Born in Kerala’, by TOT Music.

And most of did not know that many of his hit songs were composed, where else, but in Kerala! In Kumarakom to be precise. “Goutham Menon and I would come to Kumarakom and stay there for a week. I composed most of the songs there, for ‘Kaakka Kaakka’, ‘Gajjini’, ‘Varanam Ayiram’.” His Malayalam connections don’t stop there. He entered the music scene at age 12, when he played the guitar for a song that was Vijay Yesudas’ first one. Later as a keyboardist, Harris has played for Ouseppachan, Shyam, and for the songs in ‘Aniyathi Pravu’ and ‘Life is Beautiful’ too.

Life changed after ‘Vaseegara..,’ which he looks back with nostalgia. “No one ever thought it would be such a hit, all over the country.” And why did he make Bombay Jayashree sing that sensuous song? “I wanted a singer whose voice was divine, had ‘bhava,’ and I thought hers was. There were many who were sceptical, but luckily, she sang it,” he laughed. Harris has always experimented with new voices. ‘Sathyam’ is his 25th movie. And he has introduced 25 new singers already!

His father played the guitar and that’s how he took to the instrument first before making the keyboard his bread and butter. The Trinity College certificate was proof that he was going to stay put in the music field. “Academic studies just put you on that path. You have to build up on it, work at it, before success comes,” says Harris, who terms himself a keyboard player-turned music composer.

Though there are many fast numbers as well as melodies that are hits in his oeuvre, “melodies are close to my heart,” says Harris, whose favourites are of course ‘Vaseegara..,’ ‘Ayyankar veetu azhage..,’ ‘Sutrum vizhi sudare…’ and this in ‘Dham Dhoom’: ‘June ponal July katre…’ Even his fast numbers have the kind of beats that can easily qualify them as melodies. Maybe that is the secret of his success. At the end of this year, Harris is slated to go on a world musical tour. Not just that, sometime early next year or at the fag end of 2008, he may perform in Kerala too, ‘maybe Kochi’.

‘Born in Kerala’, the album brought out by TOT Music, just released by Harris Jayaraj, has a bunch of talented chaps who are behind the show. Jakes Bejoy, sings as well as acts in one of the two videos shot so far.

They will be on the channels this week. One song, Aarennile, sung by Jakes and Subhiksha, has Ajmal and Roma in the video. This is directed by Arun Shekhar, a Bollywood based film maker who is also into ad film making, Gireesh Nair and Sandhya Shekhar.

The other song, Njan focuses on the dilemma of the youths in their mid-twenties, who have too many opportunities that they are confused. Depression often sets in and this plight is picturised. Shot in Kashi, it has Jakes acting in it. The lyrics are by Jelu Jayaraj, Anil Pachooran and Suraj. Sabarinath JR is the producer.

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