KOCHI: "Sang a solo in ‘Traffic’ composed by Samson Kottoor. Fought tears while recording this one. Some songs do that to me.” Those who have heard Samson’s ‘Unaroo’ will fully endorse what its singer Chinmayi told the world on Twitter.
The Christian devotional musician’s first ever composition for a film has been pulling at the heartstrings of many. The poignant tune gels well with what the situation demands. Although the song was part of the audio CD, it was only recently that it came into the movie. “That is because its scenes have much to do with the climax,” says Samson, who has also sung the male version of the song. “The song plays in the background in six crucial scenes in the film.”
The last thing one associates with the song is the familiar strains of Christian devotionals. “There is a notion that a composer doing devotionals can generate only such kind of music. I’m happy with the reviews ‘Unaroo’ has been getting,” an elated Samson says. The journey from the church choir and devotionals to tinseltown happened over the years, Samson says. “I was into composing, singing, penning the lyrics and doing the orchestration of Christian devotionals for long. It was a meeting with Sanju of the famous Sanju- Bobby scriptwriter duo that paved my entry into the film industry.” Samson started off with doing the re-recording the duo’s tele-serial ‘Avasthantharam’ and went on to do the background score and title song of another serial, ‘Avicharitham’.
‘Traffic’ followed. A violinist and pianist who was graded from the Royal School of Music, London, Samson has also done the background score on the violin for ‘Traffic.’ “My tryst with music began when I was a nine-year-old. My father was admitted in the hospital and the doctor caught me looking intently out of the window at the music school nearby, enjoying the music. It was he who advised my father to put me there,” Samson recounts.
Soon enough, the music enthusiast dabbled in many instruments and found his calling in the piano and violin (western) besides training in classical vocal. Samson now trains under Ustad Fayaz Khan in Hindustani. He has to his credit more than 80 devotional albums and 3,900 stage programmes.
Samson’s upcoming projects include Madhav Ramdas’ Suresh Gopi-Parthipan starrer ‘Melvilasam’ for which he has done the background score. The film which has Soorya Krishnamoorthy doing the script is due to be released on March 18. Other films in his kitty include director Sreelal’s yet-to-be-titled Malayalam and Tamil film, for which Samson is doing the background score and music, Pradeesh Kumar’s Tamil flick, Jayaseelan’s ‘Sathanai’ and Gautham Krishna’s Tamil project.