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.
Showing posts with label Song : Kunnimanikal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Song : Kunnimanikal. Show all posts
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Sreehari Jayaprakash
The song Kunnimanikal has a spectacular ending. A lot of my friends have told me this is the best part in that song. I agree. That section invokes a hair raising nostalgic feeling. You will see.This song features the voice of Sreehari Jayaprakash. He is the son of my Malayalam teacher back in the high school days. Jayan master has played a big role in shaping up my school years and beyond. He is more family than a teacher to me. He has been a positive influence and a big motivator. I've known Sreehari ever since he was born. I still remember playing with him when he was about 3 years old. Now he is about 15.
Sreehari is a very talented young man. He has a knack in poetry recital and has won several prizes for it. He is trained in Carnatic music and excels in his academics. The only catch in this song is that, I recorded him before he cracked his voice. He wont sound the same by the time the album is out.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Kunnimanikal Music Video
The Music Video. Version I
I call it version 1 because the video has taken a significantly different form by now. But this story is still worth mentioning .
The music video for Kunnimanikal tells the story of a man in USA called Kamal (just for name sake). The video will pretty much feature Big Kamal in USA and Little Kamal in Kerala. I initially included a female character also but that did not work well in the video.
My friend Balagopal Ambalakatt has passion for visual media. He was my cinematographer.
Big Kamal
I started my search for an actor 2 months before my India Trip. I put ads online, Sunnyvale temple and some grocery stores. Not much luck. One day I took the camera to the office just to shoot some cubicle test scenes. It was late.. at about 9pm. In the next isle was Uddhav, my colleague, working late. Uddhav had started with the company for about 2 or 3 months. We had already been friends.
The thing was.. he looked good in the video. He had good expressions. Only thing was.. he said he had acted in a play only once. He was a tree and his friend was a dog. Any case.. Uddhav was in. Balu, Uddhav and I had a great time shooting the video.
Little Kamal
Kunnimanikal is the only song that really demanded a location in Kerala. This meant that I MUST finish this part before I finish my vacation. So here I am 3 days away from the return trip to US and I don't have a child actor that will represent Uddhav in his childhood. I am lying down in bed with my brother snoozing next to me. I said: "Roopa where am I going to find my Kunnimanikal boy?" he thought for some time and then said "Hold on. Let me check".
He called one of his customers that he knew from office. He said: I know this person. His son acted in little plays and stuff. He is good looking too. I talked to them and his father said he'll be at my house with the kid soon.
Sure enough they came to our house. I took a look at this kid and I could not stop laughing. It was miracle. Akshay (that was his name) looked just like Uddhav. I am not talking about a remote resemblance. Feature to feature. I told Uddhav later that Akshay resembled him more than how much real young Uddhav resembled the current one..
Check them out here:
We finished the whole shoot in the next two days. Had a great time. Akshay was a great team player. His dad joined us one day and he was more enthusiastic than the rest of us.
Uddhav is from Pune and Akshay from Thalasserry. I cant explain it. The thing is, now, Uddhav is not in that video anymore. But Akshay still is. I'm toying with another idea which I hope will make a better impact.
I call it version 1 because the video has taken a significantly different form by now. But this story is still worth mentioning .
The music video for Kunnimanikal tells the story of a man in USA called Kamal (just for name sake). The video will pretty much feature Big Kamal in USA and Little Kamal in Kerala. I initially included a female character also but that did not work well in the video.
My friend Balagopal Ambalakatt has passion for visual media. He was my cinematographer.
Big Kamal
I started my search for an actor 2 months before my India Trip. I put ads online, Sunnyvale temple and some grocery stores. Not much luck. One day I took the camera to the office just to shoot some cubicle test scenes. It was late.. at about 9pm. In the next isle was Uddhav, my colleague, working late. Uddhav had started with the company for about 2 or 3 months. We had already been friends.
The thing was.. he looked good in the video. He had good expressions. Only thing was.. he said he had acted in a play only once. He was a tree and his friend was a dog. Any case.. Uddhav was in. Balu, Uddhav and I had a great time shooting the video.
Little Kamal
Kunnimanikal is the only song that really demanded a location in Kerala. This meant that I MUST finish this part before I finish my vacation. So here I am 3 days away from the return trip to US and I don't have a child actor that will represent Uddhav in his childhood. I am lying down in bed with my brother snoozing next to me. I said: "Roopa where am I going to find my Kunnimanikal boy?" he thought for some time and then said "Hold on. Let me check".
He called one of his customers that he knew from office. He said: I know this person. His son acted in little plays and stuff. He is good looking too. I talked to them and his father said he'll be at my house with the kid soon.
Sure enough they came to our house. I took a look at this kid and I could not stop laughing. It was miracle. Akshay (that was his name) looked just like Uddhav. I am not talking about a remote resemblance. Feature to feature. I told Uddhav later that Akshay resembled him more than how much real young Uddhav resembled the current one..
Check them out here:
We finished the whole shoot in the next two days. Had a great time. Akshay was a great team player. His dad joined us one day and he was more enthusiastic than the rest of us.
Uddhav is from Pune and Akshay from Thalasserry. I cant explain it. The thing is, now, Uddhav is not in that video anymore. But Akshay still is. I'm toying with another idea which I hope will make a better impact.
Monday, April 2, 2007
Kunnimanikal. Finding the singer
The voice I wanted for this song was Mr M G Sreekumar's. I managed to get his cell number and called him. I was really really nervous. I talked to him for a little bit. I found out that at the time when I was going to be in India to record the songs, he was going to be in USA. I was hoping that, since he was going to be in US still when I came back, I would be able to record him here somehow. But his cell phone went unattended after that. I could not contact him anymore.
My brother suggested that Unni Menon might be a good choice. He has a great voice and is very versatile. Sure enough, Divya's cousin knew someone who knew him. He also happened to be my paternal uncle's good friend. To my luck Unni Menon was going to be in Kerala the next week. I booked a tentative time with him.
Unniyettan (I am fortunate to be able to address him that way) asked me to drop the song and lyrics at his studio the previous day. Maybe he wanted to make sure I was not some crazy guy who was going to make him sing something strange and ruin his career.
I met him in his own studio Aalap. I did not recognize him immediately. He was missing that signature beard. But what a quality guy he is. After that initial discomfort of meeting some one new, especially some one of his caliber, I liked him instantly. He had already copied the lyrics and tried to practice the song!
This was very different from my previous experience. He commented that this song was different and the lyrics were simple and touching. I felt good. He could have said the song sucked and I still would have been fine. I wa just happy to be working with him.
Uniiyettan is a hard worker. Very sincere and he does not compromise. Most artists work through the song line by line. But Unniyettan would sing a whole charanam in one stretch. If he did not like it, he will redo it all over again. Very little "punching in". The level of confidence and support that he gave me was tremendous. Here is someone who is super successful in the music Industry and he gave me the feeling that I had known him for a long time. I hope I will have the honor of working with him again.
He also offered his help to be part of the video for the title. Man.. if only I had the time and resources. I was in US already and there was not much I could do there. I still feel that a music video is best presented by featuring the singer.. than any actor.
Music videos.. Thats a whole different ball game. I'll explain the beginnings of that in the next blog.
My brother suggested that Unni Menon might be a good choice. He has a great voice and is very versatile. Sure enough, Divya's cousin knew someone who knew him. He also happened to be my paternal uncle's good friend. To my luck Unni Menon was going to be in Kerala the next week. I booked a tentative time with him.
Unniyettan (I am fortunate to be able to address him that way) asked me to drop the song and lyrics at his studio the previous day. Maybe he wanted to make sure I was not some crazy guy who was going to make him sing something strange and ruin his career.
I met him in his own studio Aalap. I did not recognize him immediately. He was missing that signature beard. But what a quality guy he is. After that initial discomfort of meeting some one new, especially some one of his caliber, I liked him instantly. He had already copied the lyrics and tried to practice the song!
This was very different from my previous experience. He commented that this song was different and the lyrics were simple and touching. I felt good. He could have said the song sucked and I still would have been fine. I wa just happy to be working with him.
Uniiyettan is a hard worker. Very sincere and he does not compromise. Most artists work through the song line by line. But Unniyettan would sing a whole charanam in one stretch. If he did not like it, he will redo it all over again. Very little "punching in". The level of confidence and support that he gave me was tremendous. Here is someone who is super successful in the music Industry and he gave me the feeling that I had known him for a long time. I hope I will have the honor of working with him again.
He also offered his help to be part of the video for the title. Man.. if only I had the time and resources. I was in US already and there was not much I could do there. I still feel that a music video is best presented by featuring the singer.. than any actor.
Music videos.. Thats a whole different ball game. I'll explain the beginnings of that in the next blog.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Kunnimanikal. The Lyrics
If you can read Malayalam, here is the first song in the album that I wrote.
Enjoy.
(Click on the lyrics for a bigger image. This size may be too small)
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