Singer Unni Menon is elated about the popularity of his song ‘Mazhaneer Thullikal’ in the hit movie ‘Beautiful’. The song is a chart-topper on most of the TV channels. “I am not very active in Malayalam films. Still director V K Prakash called me and offered me this song. I am thankful to him and the film’s producer Anand Payyannur. ‘Mazhaneer Thullikal’ is a melodious number composed by Rathish Vega. VKP directed the film sensitively with a novel touch and its scriptwriter Anoop Menon also did a fine job. The film is a superhit. This has helped my song greatly,” says Unni.
He should know. Several Malayalam films he has sung for in recent years (like ‘Koottukar’, ‘Jubilee’, ‘Puthiya Mukhangal’ and ‘Yugapurushan’) flopped at the box office and the songs went unnoticed. Unni also appeared on screen in a small role in ‘Beautiful’.
After his debut in the Malayalam film ‘Kadathu’ in 1982, he had sung several hit songs before his Malayalam film career underwent a lean phase from the 90s. He had sung in several Tamil films in the 80s, but his career got a big boost with ‘Puthuvellai Mazhai’, the duet with Sujatha in Rahman’s debut film ‘Roja’ in 1992. For the past two decades he is active in Tamil films with several hit numbers sung for all major composers ranging from Rahman to newcomers like Rehnanthan. And he is busy with stage shows all over the world, more of them being Tamil programmes.
All through this phase he had a feeling that the Malayalam industry ignored him. “I do not know why. I am not good at self-promotion. That may be the reason,” he adds, smiling ruefully.
Yet there were the occasional hits like ‘Oru Chempaneer’ in ‘Sthithi’(2003), directed by R.Sarath. Unni had composed this song and also acted as the hero in this film. So ‘Mazhaneer Thullikal’ certainly makes him happy. And its success raises hopes that melodies still have their takers amidst the bombardment of cacophony, plagiarism and nonsense lyrics. Unni’s duet with Chitra, ‘Santhikkatha Kangalil’ in the Tamil film ‘180’ was a hit recently. This was a rollicking melody composed by Sharreth. Unni has sung for many Tamil films recently including ‘Neer Parvai’ under the baton of young composer Rehnanthan.
Though the Malayalam film industry has ignored him for two decades Unni has been a prominent presence on the Malayalam devotional music scene all through this period, through dozens of albums. Recently he recorded ‘Narayaneeyam’ for Sa Re Ga Ma and this will be released as a twin CD soon. “As a native of Guruvayur it gave me immense pleasure as I recorded this. This is a musical interpretation of ‘Narayaneeyam’, tuned by T.S.Radhakrishnan. It required a lot of effort, getting the Sanskrit pronunciation right,” says Unni.
There is no doubt that he has enjoyed every minute of his 30-year-long singing career which he took up after chucking a secure job at Heavy Vehicles Factory, Chennai.