With a string of songs that have caught on in recent years, Muthu is steadily making his mark as one of Malayalam cinema’s new-age lyricists. His latest hit is ‘Asalayavale’, the first single from Prithviraj Sukumaran’s upcoming Onam release Khalifa, composed by Jakes Bejoy. The peppy romantic track has crossed 6 million views on YouTube and 3 million streams on Spotify within three weeks of its release. “The song became popular very quickly and started trending,” Muthu says. “Within two days, it was a blast.”
When Khalifa came calling
His interest in working with Jakes began after his hit song ‘Ila Kozhiye’ from Thalavara gained attention. “I had a great desire to work with Jakes because he is a composer who knows the pulse of the Malayalam audience right now,” he recalls. “When ‘Ila Kozhiye’ became a hit, a lot of people noticed it. I had a feeling that Jakes might listen to it as well. He did, and he called me.” Their first film together was Paathirathri, followed by a portion of the hit track ‘The War Cry’ for Pallichattambi.
Muthu’s association with Khalifa began with ‘Mathara’, the wedding song from the film’s 12-track album. He has penned eight songs on the album, three of which have been released so far. “Jinu (Abraham), Vysakh ettan and Jakes liked ‘Mathara’ a lot,” he notes. “Then, one day, I was told there was a romantic song, and they asked if I could write it. That is how ‘Asalayavale’ came about. I first wrote one version and later had to extend it a little.” The extension took him to director Vysakh’s house. “I took a sheet of paper from him and worked on it there within minutes. That is how I developed the final version,” he recalls.
The craft behind the lyrics
For Muthu, lyric-writing is less about sitting down with a blank page and more about responding to the music and the filmmaker’s vision. He usually begins after the director and composer explain what the song needs to convey, with the composition serving as his starting point. “The director and music director will tell me the theme. They explain what the song is about and what the situation is. By then, the music director would usually have already composed the tune. My job is to write the lines over that composition,” he explains.
His approach also changes with the song’s place in the narrative. “If the song comes during a climax, I need to know the entire story because we may want to convey a lot through it,” he points out. “If it is a romantic scene, I need to know where the story has reached so far.” He points to ‘Kozhi Encounter’ from Bharathanatyam 2 Mohiniyattam and his debut song ‘Machinmele’ from ED: Extra Decent as examples of lyrics that carry an entire story. The process can take 10 minutes to a couple of hours, but he prefers collaboration over solitude. “It is difficult to write when I am completely alone. I usually prefer to write in the presence of the music director or director, or connect with them over the phone,” he admits.
From priesthood to music
Muthu’s journey into music began in a world that had little room for the life he would eventually choose. Raised in a staunchly conservative Muslim environment, he trained and worked as a priest in Kadakkal, Kollam. By his early twenties, he had begun questioning the boundaries of that life and decided to leave. “I wanted to live like a normal human being. I wanted to come out of that society and experience life beyond those boundaries,” he reflects.
Music became one of the ways he explored that wider world. He wrote his first song in seventh grade, “purely for entertainment”, later moving through romantic songs, Sufi music, ghazals and qawwali. His instinct to experiment extended to composition, despite never learning to play an instrument or read musical notation. Instead, he learnt to communicate melodies through his voice.
This led to his work as a composer on Aabhyanthara Kuttavaali and, later, the two hit songs he composed for Vaazha 2, ‘Sunnath Kalyanam’ and ‘Paazha’. The former, from the record-breaking blockbuster, drew from an experience he knew intimately: the Muslim circumcision celebration. “I was thinking about my own sunnath kalyanam. I had never heard a song about it before. When Vipin Das called me and told me about the song, I was very curious and eager to do it. I wrote and composed it in about 15 minutes,” he recalls.
Finding his way into cinema
Stepping away from the priesthood brought some initial difficulties at home, though Muthu says his family has since accepted his decision. Clubhouse, the social audio app, gave him his first audience during the pandemic lockdown and eventually led to his first paid songwriting assignment.
He later spent several months in Rajasthan listening to qawwali before releasing his debut independent single, ‘Atharaanu Nee’. Moving to Kochi brought him closer to cinema. “I didn’t know anything about cinema,” he recounts. “I was mainly doing Sufi songs. Gradually, things moved towards cinema.” Filmmaker Aamir Pallikkal heard him singing at a cafe and invited him to write for ED: Extra Decent. “Initially, I was supposed to write just one song, but eventually I wrote four,” he remembers.
That gift for words has a family history as Muthu grew up in a family where poetry and spirituality were closely intertwined. His maternal great-grandfather, Syed Sulaiman al Qahiri, was a Sufi guru and poet who wrote in Arabic and Tamil. “He was very creative and had a wonderful way of playing with words,” Muthu says. “I think my habit of playing with words in my songs also comes from him.”
With around 18 films in various stages in the pipeline, Muthu has no fixed formula. He does not see changing audience tastes or generations as a limitation. “I can write a song for an older generation, and one for a younger generation. I can write according to any situation, so I don’t have any tension in my writing,” he maintains.