The good part of the story is that he is doing a lot — acting, writing, even scripting. The sad part is that he can’t tell much about any of these at the moment. But then actor, singer and lyricist Shabareesh Varma says his resting period is over. He has had it easy after Premam, taking things slow, saying no to the many offers that came. And then when he began committing, there came five films in all. In between, he sang a few songs too. But he has altered his ways. He decided he prefers writing lyrics for songs when he acts in those films. There will be exceptions, like the music video ‘Ana-al Haq’ he has written for director Ambili S. Rengan, which will be released on Saturday at a function in Kochi.
“Ambili chettan had called me for another project previously. That’s how we met. And when this song came along, he asked if I could write the lyrics. It is a Sufi song, and I have read a lot of Rumi and Hafiz poems, so it was really interesting. I didn’t really write any new ideas,” says the modest lyricist. The song has been an idea of a man called Fazaludheen Thangal, who got Ranjini Jose to sing it. Santhosh Chandran has composed it after Shabareesh wrote the lyrics. Shabareesh can be called an accidental lyricist. There was the Pistah song for Neram but that was a fun song full of gibberish. It was for Premam he first wrote real words.
“I didn’t have to sit and discuss with Alphonse (the director) what he wanted. I was there from the time the idea for Premam hatched to its completion. So I knew and I simply asked if I shall write the songs and he agreed. And I realised that brings greater satisfaction that when you are not part of a film but only join to write songs,” Shabareesh says. After Premam however, he has sung for films like Double Barrel and Anuraga Karikkin Vellam, ‘Manjappada’ for Kerala Blasters and the Tamil Nadu Premier League anthem for Anirudh His original dream about cinema had been to act. So that’s what he has been doing these past few months. And he has also taken to writing script for one. “I am writing for me to act,” he laughs.
