''Premam'' is the
soundtrack album
A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' ...
for the
2015 Malayalam-Tamil film of the same name directed by
Alphonse Puthren
Alphonse Puthren is an Indian film director, producer, actor, editor, writer, and ad film maker. He works mainly in the Malayalam Cinema. He made his directional debut with the critically acclaimed Malayalam - Tamil bilingual suspense-thrille ...
and starring
Nivin Pauly
Nivin Pauly (born 11 October 1984) is an Indian actor and producer who works predominantly in Malayalam films. He is a recipient of several awards including two Kerala State Film Awards and three Filmfare Awards South, Filmfare South awards. ...
and
Sai Pallavi
Sai Pallavi Senthamarai Kannan (born 9 May 1992), known by her stage name Sai Pallavi, is an Indian actress and dancer who works in Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam cinema. She has won several awards including four Filmfare Awards South, and was fea ...
. The original soundtrack and background score were composed by
Rajesh Murugesan
Rajesh Murugesan (born 14 May 1988) is an Indian music composer, best known for his compositions in Malayalam cinema, with films such as '' Neram'' and ''Premam''.
Personal life
Murugesan born in Nagercoil. He completed his schooling at Coc ...
, who had collaborated with Puthren in the film ''
Neram
''Neram'' () is a 2013 Indian black comedy thriller film written, directed, and edited by Alphonse Puthren in his directorial debut. Simultaneously made in Malayalam and Tamil languages, the film is an extended version of the short film of the ...
'' (2013).
Shabareesh Varma
Shabareesh Varma is an Indian lyricist, singer and actor working in Malayalam and Tamil films. Shabareesh made his debut in the Alphonse Putharen's acclaimed 2013 film ''Neram'' where he rose to fame with his lyrics for the song ''Pistah'' in ...
, beside singing, wrote the lyrics for eight of the nine songs.
[Robin T Varghese (5 June 2015)]
"Shabareesh – The actor, writer and singer of 'Premam'"
''Malayala Manorama''. Retrieved 9 June 2015. One song "Rockaankuthu" which had lyrics written by Pradeep Palarr was sung by Tamil film composer
Anirudh Ravichander
Anirudh Ravichander (born 16 October 1990), also known Mononymous person, mononymously as Anirudh, is an Indian film scorer music composer music producer singer and instrumentalist who primarily works in Tamil films. He is the son of actor Ra ...
.
The soundtrack album was released by the record label
Muzik 247
Muzik 247 based out of Chennai, acquires music rights for South Indian Cinema films, mainly Tamil, Malayalam and Tulu. The company was founded in 2012 by Naveen Bhandari, and has achieved a large market share of the Malayalam film music.
About ...
on 14 February 2015 and topped the charts, with songs "Aaluva Puzha" and "Malare" became instant hits. The album was listed as the Best Malayalam Music Album of the year by
Apple Music
Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Apple M ...
.
Development
Puthren roped in
Rajesh Murugesan
Rajesh Murugesan (born 14 May 1988) is an Indian music composer, best known for his compositions in Malayalam cinema, with films such as '' Neram'' and ''Premam''.
Personal life
Murugesan born in Nagercoil. He completed his schooling at Coc ...
as the film's composer in April 2014, following the success of ''
Neram
''Neram'' () is a 2013 Indian black comedy thriller film written, directed, and edited by Alphonse Puthren in his directorial debut. Simultaneously made in Malayalam and Tamil languages, the film is an extended version of the short film of the ...
''.
Unlike many films during the Malayalam
new generation
"New Generation" is the third and final single from the album ''Dog Man Star'' by English rock band Suede, released on 30 January 1995 through Nude Records. It is the first single to feature music by new guitarist Richard Oakes. Though the tit ...
have less than five tracks in the album, Puthren insisted that Rajesh compose at least 13–14 tracks for the film, since the narrative of the film is
musical
Musical is the adjective of music.
Musical may also refer to:
* Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance
* Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...
and Puthren believed that the songs would have great impact on the film.
However, the final track list only had 9 songs.
Shabareesh Varma
Shabareesh Varma is an Indian lyricist, singer and actor working in Malayalam and Tamil films. Shabareesh made his debut in the Alphonse Putharen's acclaimed 2013 film ''Neram'' where he rose to fame with his lyrics for the song ''Pistah'' in ...
initially wrote one song for the director–composer collaboration's previous film, which was "
Pistah". As the track became viral upon release, Puthren roped him as the norm lyricist and asked him to pen eight tracks for the film. Shabareesh started penning the first song, a "gibberish" track for the film in May 2014. Most of his tracks were written at his house in
Aluva
Aluva (; also known by its former name Alwaye) is a town in the Ernakulam District in Kerala, India. It is a part of the Kochi metropolitan area and is situated around from the city center on the banks of Periyar River. A major transpor ...
, where Rajesh and Puthren were present.
Shabareesh commented that some of his film songs seemed to come true in real life. In an interview with ''
Deccan Chronicle
''Deccan Chronicle'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded by Rajagopal Mudaliar in the 1930s & currently owned by Samagrah Commercial Pvt Limited. It is published in Hyderabad, Telangana, by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited ( ...
'', he stated that when he wrote the song "Ithu Puthan Kaalam", he got much money to solve his financial troubles. However, when he wrote the second song "Kaalam Kettupoi", the recording studio due to heavy rains and lightning, but the laptop with the film's songs was safe with the music director Rajesh Murugesan.
The track "Scene Contra" was written as the eponymous title song for a short film, and was written within eight minutes. As some of his friends demanded that the song should be used in a film album instead of a short film. Then, Puthren suggested that the song could be used in ''Premam'' and Rajesh wrote background orchestration for this purpose.
In September 2014, actor
Murali Gopy
Gopynathan Velayudhan Nair Muralikrishnan (born 4 March 1972), professionally credited as Murali Gopy, is an Indian actor-screenwriter, producer, author, singer, lyricist, music composer and journalist. He has written critically acclaimed films ...
recorded the song "Kalippu" during the time he worked on singing two songs simultaneously. Similar to "Scene Contra", this song was also recorded for a short film under the title "Kalippu", but following Puthren's suggestions, this song was used in the film.
In addition to Shabareesh Varma, screenwriter-cum-lyricist Pradeep Palarr also penned one song titled "Rockaankuthu" recorded by Tamil film composer
Anirudh Ravichander
Anirudh Ravichander (born 16 October 1990), also known Mononymous person, mononymously as Anirudh, is an Indian film scorer music composer music producer singer and instrumentalist who primarily works in Tamil films. He is the son of actor Ra ...
.
Marketing
The music album of ''Premam'' was launched on 14 February 2015 on the occasion of
Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, throu ...
through
streaming media
Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...
for
digital download. Followed by the digital release, the audio CDs were released through music stores on 28 February, with a record number of CDs sold on the first day of its release. All the audio songs released prior to the film release went viral on the internet. In March 2015, video for the song "Aluva Puzha" sung by
Vineeth Sreenivasan
Vineeth Sreenivasan (born 1 October 1984) is an Indian playback singer, actor, film director, screenwriter, producer, lyricist, creative director and dubbing artist. He predominantly works in the Malayalam cinema. He is the son of actor an ...
was released and became the chart topper. As a marketing strategy the song "Scene Contra" was released later on 5 May and "Malare" was released on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
on 6 June. The song received 1 million hits within 14 hours of release and trended on all social networking platforms.
Reception
Writing for ''
The New Indian Express
''The New Indian Express'' is an Indian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper published by the Chennai-based Express Publications. It was founded in 1932 as ''The Indian Express'', under the ownership of Chennai-based P. Varadarajulu Naid ...
'', music critic Vipin Nair noted, "The Neram team's (Alphonse Puthren-Rajesh Murugesan-Shabareesh Varma) sophomore effort in Premam is almost as impressive, but for an occasional let down by the vocal choices". ''Behindwoods'' in their first music review in Malayalam gave the album 3.75 out of 5 stars and stated "Fall in love with this wholesome gem!" Karthik Srinivasan of Milliblog called the soundtrack in "as middling at its best", although the song "Malare" received praise. ''Indiaglitz'' called the album "melodious and lyrically rich with seasoned singing" and gave a rating of 3.25 out of 5. At the annual music review roundup published in ''
The Hindu
''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...
'', Karthik listed ''Premam'' as the second best Malayalam soundtrack of 2015, after ''
Charlie
Charlie may refer to:
Characters
* "Charlie," the head of the Townsend Agency', from the ''Charlie's Angels'' franchise
* Charlie, a character on signs for the CharlieCard, a smart card issued by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
* ...
'' (composed by
Gopi Sunder
Gopi Sundar C. S. (born 30 May 1977) is an Indian music director, programmer, playback singer, songwriter, actor and performer who works prominently in Malayalam, Telugu and Tamil film industries. He started his career composing music for tel ...
).
Apple Music
Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Apple M ...
selected it as the "Best Malayalam album" of 2015. Sanjith Sreedharan of ''
The Times of India
''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...
'' listed the album as the "most popular Malayalam music album of 2015". Anu James of International Business Times listed the songs "Malare" and "Aluva Puzha" in the second and third positions in the best Malayalam songs of the year.
Track listing
Chart performance
Other versions
For the Telugu remake of this film
under the same name, Murugesan remade four of his songs into
Telugu
Telugu may refer to:
* Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India
*Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India
* Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language
** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode
S ...
, with "Evare" (the Telugu remake of the original song "Malare") retained its singer
Vijay Yesudas
Vijay Yesudas (born 23 March 1979) is an Indian playback singer and actor. He has sung over 1000 film songs. Vijay works predominantly in the South Indian film industry, mostly in Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Hindi. He is the son of ...
, for the version. The rest of the tracks were sung by different singers, with
Naresh Iyer
Naresh Iyer (born 3 January 1981) is an Indian playback singer. Born Mumbai, Iyer is fluent in Malayalam,Tamil, Kannada, Hindi and Marathi. Naresh Iyer has rendered 2000 film songs in several Indian languages and has several chart hits to hi ...
and
Karthik contributing vocals to the album, whilst
Gopi Sundar
Gopi Sundar C. S. (born 30 May 1977) is an Indian music director, programmer, playback singer, songwriter, actor and performer who works prominently in Malayalam, Telugu and Tamil film industries. He started his career composing music for tele ...
composed three new songs for the Telugu counterpart.
Awards
Footnotes
References
External links
* {{IMDb title, id=tt4679210, title=Premam: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
2015 soundtrack albums
Malayalam film soundtracks
Romance film soundtracks