It’s like fame just passed him by and he didn’t take notice. Sooraj S. Kurup remains completely unaffected by the applause that his music, especially that of Seetha Kalyanam from Solo, has brought him. He speaks of it excitedly, of the time he got the call from director Bejoy Nambiar, to work on a ‘marriage’ song that would come in the climax of the segment ‘World of Rudra’. Sooraj doesn’t expect you to know that he is the guy who has made music for a few films, starting with Valleem Thetti Pulleem Thetti. Or that he has ventured into acting, becoming the man Nivin Pauly tries to beat up in Sakhavu. “But he doesn’t, because by then Nivin’s character turns good,” Sooraj says with a laugh.
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His first love will always be music, and the making of it, no doubt about that. It’s just that he is open to experiment as a singer, a lyricist and as it happens, an actor, when the opportunities come. For Valleem Thetti, he had written the lyrics for most of the songs too, apart from composing them. And sung two. From there, he went on to make the background score of Annmariya Kalippilanu. Alamara came next, with background score and songs. He also composed a song for Kochavva Paulo Ayyappa Coehlo, and got Shankar Mahadevan to sing it.
“For Sakhavu, I wrote the lyrics for a composition by Prashant Pillai,” he says. “Not that I plan these but when it comes, I do.” It is listening to his composition of a Bharathiar song Suttum Vizhi for Valleem Thetti that got Bejoy to call him for Solo. It’s got English lyrics that Sooraj sings, and Tamil. The same song appears in the Tamil and Malayalam versions of the film. “Bejoy gave me all the freedom to experiment and that is a musician’s dream. His call came on a Friday and I gave the song on Sunday. He said superb, it’s already placed in the edit.” Sooraj also composed the background score. Seetha Kalyanam is a new song, only two lines of the Thyagaraja krithi were taken. “The lyrics were written by Sangeeth Ravindran.” Next in line is his first Tamil project, Vandi. In Malayalam, he has finished composition for Tovino’s Luka. “There are also plans to make my first independent music video,” he concludes.
