A proud moment for Malayalam cinema had come as for the first time, songs from the Malayalam cinema is short listed for the entry to Oscar awards from India. Earlier almost 20 years back, Mohanlal starrer film Guru was selected in the list of India’s official Oscar entry. After that it is the first time that a Malayalam film is becoming a part of Oscar race from India.
But two Malayalees had won Oscar for India as well. AR Rahman who won Oscar for music direction and Rasool Poookutty who won Oscar for sound designing had Kerala connections. When AR Rahman is a half Malayali, Rasool Pookkutty is a Malayali by birth. This time the songs from the film named Jalam directed by M Padmakumar had made its way in to the list of India’s official Oscar entry.
The songs for the film is composed by Ouseppachan and the lyrics for the songs were written by Dr. Vasu Devan who is a noted music reviewer, poet an also the department head of Hindi in Ernakulam Maharajas College. 4 songs from the film is selected in the category of best original songs. The film is scripted by Suresh Babu and financed by Sohan Roy. The songs which were selected are Koodu Vekkan…, Yathra Manoradham.., Pakal Pathi Chaari.., and Bhoomiyil enganumundo..
3 of these songs were compos in western musical style and the song Pakal Pathi chari was composed in the raga Raghupriya which was never use in Malayalam cinema before. The film is a women centric one starred by Priyanka. The flick had already won appreciation in many film festivals had not yet released in theaters here. Madhu Vasudevan had penned the lyrics of the song Ottakku Paaunna from the film nadan, the song which won the state award for best song that year. Ouseppachan had entered the Oscar nomination list of India for his songs in the film Dam 999 directed by Sohan Roy in 2012. The final nomination list of Oscar will declare in next month 14th.
