Merry Christmas

I love the last week of the year. Its really the most wonderful time of the year. So on behalf of the Kanmani team, I want to wish all my readers (all 5 of you lol) a Merry Christmas.

My memories of Christmas celebrations back home included hanging the star and Christmas cakes. When I was 12, I was at my grandmother's place and I wanted to do a Christmas tree. So My brother and I went out and cut a tree from the wild and hoisted it in front of the house. There was no electricity yet in that house then. So We decorated the whole tree with candles. The tree was short lived but the memory of it still remains.

There was no Santa Clause.. It was only about celebrating the birth of Christ. It is a bit sad that good old USA now tries to be politically correct and masks Christ with Mr. Claus.

So once again.. "Merry Christmas everyone...". This is the time to rest, rejoice and rejuvenate.

Kanmani video crosses 15000 views

Hurray! The video is the one of the best album videos ever made in Malayalam (IMHO). So here it is. Reposted to celebrate 15,000 views on YouTube.

For more details, visit AlbumKanmani.com

Say thanks to the troops by sending a card. Its free and only takes 5 seconds

As we celebrate Christmas and New Year, scores of military personnel are abroad from all all the fun, risking their life, doing their duty. Please take 5 seconds and send them a card. It is free. All you have to do is pick a card, pick a message and Xerox corp will print it out and send it overseas. Click here.

Kunnimanikal gets a node from MalluSpice

Some of you are familiar with this site: http://malluspice.blogspot.com/. Its a great place for Mallu recipies. The author, Shaheen goes to great lengths with explanation and photos. Check today's recipe for the Malabar Biriyani.. the king of Kerala recipes. Shaheen's passion is evident in her presentation of the recipes. There are a lot of recipes for the busy people that think there is no time to cook.

MalluSpice posted the Kunnimanikal video 2 days ago. Thanks Shaheen.

Kanmani honored at Manca Christmas Celebrations

It was my privilege to be recognized on stage. Tambi Antony (actor, producer and the brother of Babu Antony) conducted the event by accepting a copy of the CD from me. Here are some of the photos from the event.

See the complete album here:

The event was preceded by Gopakumar and his son Govind singing the song Kunnimanikal.

Thanks to Manoj and Vinod Empranthiri for taking these pictures..

Kunnimanikal featured in insidekerala.com

First of all, here is the link.
http://www.insidekerala.com/n/article/Entertainment/10923/

Inside Kerala is a popular news portal from God's Own Country. The coverage is quite extensive with topics that include main stream politics, Entertainment, sports, NRI, Travel, Careers, Lifestyle and more.

My first attempt at directing

This is crazy. But true. I was 8 years old. At the school anniversary event, I wanted to present a play. I didnt know any but I remembered a play that my cousin told me about. This was performed in one of her school events. The story goes like this.. I a house, some one is stealing sweets from the candy bowl. The thief walks in, take some candy, throw some to the audience and leaves. The owner is concerned. So he calls a police and the police sets a trap. He sits on a chair with the sheets covering him. The next day, the thief walks in, steals candy and sits on the chair. And he is caught.

I though I could pull it off. So I instructed my actors about the story. I played the part of the police man. There were no sheets available. So I used a newspaper. Everything played well until the boy sat on me. I tried to get a grip on him but he ran away. Well. Jerk. He was my neighbor too.

Funny how selective our memories are when it comes to the childhood. I cannot remember a whole lot but I remember enough. Things that makes no sense.. like the dream I used to have when I was four! The day when I met the boy who became a great friend of mine.. For a couple of grades.. Well.. I got another best friend after that. Ok. I'm going on a tangent. But childhood is sweet. I thought it would be so cool to be an adult at that time. How wrong I was ..

Albumkanmani.com revamped

When you get a chance, check out albumkanmani.com .
There has been a major site overhaul, more content added and presentation made better.

Have you seen the free download section? Wallpapers, Ringtones and mp3 files. Please did in.

By the way, it is a php site now. How can a UI Engineer run a plain html site.. He he he. If you have ideas on how to make it even better, let me know.

A free mp3 download

If you've already bought the CD, you may have heard the Remix song. I mixed it up just for fun. Some people really loved it. It sounded like a Malayalam Trance fusion. So here it is in full form.
Kanmani Remix mp3 (6MB)

I had an idea about a video for this song. But I can only do it in Kerala. So it may be a while before I do it.

I've gotten a lot of testimonials about the Kunnimanikal song. Its all been positive. I'll try and post them in the next couple of days. These compliments are a big comfidence booster. Film is a fine art. Story telling is not as straightforward as it seems. I am glad I was able to convey what I wanted to with this sing. It keeps me humble.

I'll write about my next project in the coming days. Its very ambitious but it will beworth it when I pull it through. I'm looking forward to building a small team to get that task done. No more one man army.

Nostalgia Revisted

First listen to this mp3 clip:

While Kunnimanikal is making fairly good rounds on the net, I thought I'll throw in a sound that is bound to trigger up some thoughts. Especially those who has taken those long train rides in India. I was 10 hours away from my home and I have several trips great memories. There is something hypnotic about that sound. Its rhythmic most of the times. When it goes over a bridge, the tempo changes. I really wish I had recorded more sounds while I was there.

ANyways.. If these brought any memories to you, please share...

Introducing Sreehari Jayaprakash

Sreehari is the son of my school teacher. He was a great motivator to me and I give him a lot of credits for the role he played in my life. I recorded this song last year. Sreehari's voice had not cracked yet. Lucky for me. His boy voice had a magical quality. The ending of Kunnimanikal still tugs my heart a bit.

3 months ago, I met Sreehari and recorded some video. It was done impromptu and while his brother was playing computer games nearby. He is an incredibly talented young man. Obviously his voice has changed. But that doesn't mask his abilities. So here is Sreehari.



On the album video front, there has been a lot of hits on YouTube and people have been kind enough to leave comments. Keeps me humble and I hope all the hard work behind this album will pay off eventually. Thanks everyone, please send it to your friends and family, add it on your blog, orkut videos or web site.

Kunnimanikal video, In better quality.

I like Revver. Its better quality than youtube. But Youtube has the crowd.
If you enjoyed the video on you tube, you should be able to enjoy it better on revver (their audio could use some improvement). Here it is..



You can also download a quicktime movie to your PC from here

By the way, thanks for all those wonderful comments on youtube and orkut. Your encouragement means a lot to me. Really appreciate it.