2022 was a year of relief from a pandemic-stricken world that came out with all efforts to bring that feeling of some normalcy to everything. That effort was such a relief, especially for the entire entertainment business which was affected most by the restrictions on person-to-person contact. People were dying in numbers that no one had ever seen, and all were scared to step out of their homes. That all ended when the power of scientific understanding of the pandemic came to rescue mankind. Pfizer’s COVID vaccine put a break to the spread of the virus that went haywire over a period of 2 years and finally the pandemic came under control with the availability of some sort of vaccine available for the world. It was a win for science while in the USA, a political party and its leader were spreading lies about the pandemic and making fun of scientists who helped him from the virus attack when he was hit hard by the same virus.
Despite all these hurdles, humankind survived a serious threat to itself by joining hands. That helped all of us to start enjoying music concerts and public events and movies in theatres. 2022 is the year we are happy to write this opinion piece about the music from the Malayalam music industry. This is based on an independent survey of numbers on music streaming apps like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube. Here are the top ten songs of the Year 2022. The opinions expressed are solely the Author’s assessment and are based on the actual numbers of their play over the last year.
The Song at position one
Singer: Athul Narukara Lyrics: Santhosh Varma, Sreehari Tharayil Chorus: Team Soul of Folk Original song: Soul of Folk Music Produced and Arranged by JAKES BEJOY. Both the music director and the lead singer Athul Narukara have done an amazing job with this song. A highly anticipated Superstar Prithviraj movie brings this song to the music lovers of Kerala with a new trend the singer Athul himself has coined and popularized which is ‘Folkgrapher‘. His band Soul of Folk is also unique. Athul is doing his thesis work in Folklore at the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Calicut. He came to Malayalam cinema playback through his very first folk song in another superstar Mammooty movie (Puzhu). Folk songs have been nurtured for many years within Kerala’s campuses and by various campus political movements. It was a pleasure to see youngsters like Athul bring the songs of the common man where the lyrics are rich descriptions of the hard life of the poor. Excellent job by music director Jakes Bejoy who deservedly earned this place among the top for the year 2022.
The Song at position two
Song: Tupathu Singers: Tovino Thomas, Vishnu Vijay, Shakthisree Gopalan, Lyrics: Mu. Ri, Music Composed, arranged, and produced by Vishnu Vijay. This movie ‘Thallumala’ was a fresh breath in the whole of last year. The quality of music in this movie along with a movie that made a new stylized visual extravaganza that only will happen in Malayalam movies. Music director Vishnu Vijay is the winner here. All the songs are amazingly well made. We embed ‘Paathu rap’, which is sung by the hero of the movie Tovino himself along with gorgeously accompanied by Shakthisree Gopalan. Here the winner is the music director Vishnu Vijay. Vishnu’s career graph started as an assistant with some of the excellent music directors like G. V. Prakash Kumar and Vijay Antony in Tamil, a classically trained flutist with an excellent understanding of sounds. His journey from many excellent songs in Malayalam previously in movies like ‘Guppy, Ambili, and, now in Thallumala‘, is an amazingly outstanding talent in the Malayalam music field.
The song at position three
Song: Devadoothar Original Credits, Film: Kaadhodu kaadhoram, Song Composed by Ouseppachan, Lyrics: O N V Kurup
Singer: K J Yesudas
Song Reproduced by Dawn Vincent Music Rearranged and Programmed by Jackson Aruja, Singer: Biju Narayanan, Male Chorus Gagul Joseph, Subrahmanyan K V, Ashok T Ponnappan Female Chorus: Siji Davis, Mable Prince, Melin Livro, Rincy Martin. This song is here at the top despite the original music being produced in the year 1985 and this is a re-arranged song in a powerful Malayalam movie made last year. The genius of music director Ousepachan sir is what makes us wonder how these songs are such timeless classics. Biju Narayanan did an excellent job re-singing a song that is unmatched to be sung originally by KJ Yesudas. The enormously talented Kunchako Boban’s viral dancing to the song is also an amazing display of a very talented actor pool in this small state.
The song at position 4: Akasham pole
Music – Sushin Shyam, Lyrics – Rafeeq Ahammed, Singers – Hamsika Iyer, Kapil Kapilan. The music director, Sushin, as we predicted for the past years, has been the most promising music director of Malayalam movies. This song is from his last years’ major movie Bheeshma. The winner is Singer Kapil Kapilan. He is our brother whose talent is unmistakable. Kapil Kapilan’s last year’ ‘Adiye’ in Tamil from the Bachelor movie is beyond words to describe. His association with music director Dibu Nainan Thomas made a difference in his life. Years before I used to be in touch with Kapil and was trying to get him to sit with me for an interview. Once he called me and said, “I have a lot of confidence as a musician in myself and I will make a mark in the music industry, and I am very sure about it.” That was about four years ago, we all knew his profile on Smule and wondered how perfect his singing was. Now this year belongs to him with his hit song in Malayalam and won SIIMA awards for best playback singer male 2022 for his Tamil song ‘Adiye‘. We think Kapil is the singer to watch for singing in all languages in the year 2023.
The song at position 5: Shilakalkil Music Composed and Arranged by JAKES BEJOY, Singers: AKHIL J CHAND, VAIGA NAMBIAR, Lyrics: KAITHAPURAM DAMODARAN NAMBOOTHIRI, Music Producer: JAKES BEJOY, ABJAKSH S
This song is in this position for its excellent singing by Akhil Jaychand and Vaiga Nambiar. Read more about Akhil Jayachand here on our blog page where we interviewed him. Akhil JayaChand- A Genius Musician. The movie is another proud one, only Malayalam can make amazing acting and storyline to make this an outstanding movie of our times. The music director Jakes Bejoy did, as in previous years, an excellent music score for this movie. Both Akhil and Vaiga most melodiously sing this song. Akhil is the singer to look for in the next year with a lot of promise in all the south Indian languages.
The Song at position 6: Dharshana Song: Darshana, from the movie Hrudayam. Composed and arranged by Hesham Abdul Wahab, Sung by Hesham Abdul Wahab, and Darshana Rajendran, and Lyrics by Arun Alat. Publicized by the lead role played by Superstar Mohanlal’s son, this movie is big time saved by the genius songs made by Hesham Abul Wahab. The lead actress Darshana Rajendran also sang some part of this song. The song arrangement is commendable and shows some real maturity as a musician Hesham.
The Song at position 7: The song from Hryduyam Pottu Thotta Pournami, sung by Sachin Balu and Megha Josekutty is here for a reason. Megha year after year proves to be a top talent in the Malayalam music industry. She had been the most noted singer in the last few years on our top ten counts. She also had been among our singers on Smule everyone had the pleasure to have sung with her invites. Megha got a break with playback of Shaan Rahman’s music direction. The same music director gave her many chances in the years to come. Her song from the movie Helen fetched her Radio Mirchi’s most notable new singer award. Last year had been her year as the most noted young female singer to snatch a coveted opportunity in this highly awaited movie. Male voice in this song is Sachin Balu is a very noticeable voice in Malayalam. Want to know more about him go here.
The song at position 8: is by none other than the greatest music director of all, A. R. Rahman. Malayan Kunju movie is yet another gem of the movie only Malayalam can be boasting about. The enormously talented Fahad Fazil did yet another acting portrayal of a difficult-to-sketch character in this movie. ARR did an excellent job with all the songs made with a lot of analysis of local folk tunes and spun it in a way it did 200 % justice to the storyline of this movie. Swetha Mohan is ARR’s pick for the songs and her talent and nurture are proven to be a singer who already made a mark in India’s music industry. Hopefully, ARR will give the opportunity to more fresh talents in the future.
The Song: Yaathonnum Parayathe at position 9 Music: Kailas Menon, Lyrics: Vinayak Sasikumar, Singers: Sithara Krishnakumar, Abhijith Anilkumar. This is one movie that dealt with an interesting subject during last year’s release. Music director Kailas Menon again proves that every time he is on the top of his game and gave yet another hit song. Sithara Krishnakumar in her gorgeous voice along with the newcomer Abhijith Anil Kumar sang this beautiful melody to get here in the top 10. Abhijith came to notice through the reality show, Super 4 and won the show as part of judge Vidhu Prathap’s team. Sithara Krishnakumar was also one of the Super 4 judges on this show. Kailas Menon deserves kudos to have given a great opportunity to this youngster in his song. He did an awesome job and he is the winner here.
The Song at the 10th position is – Aaromal from the Movie – Sita Ramam (Malayalam), with Lyrics by – Vinayak Sasikumar Singers – Sooraj Santhosh, and music director Vishal Chandrashekhar. This song is here at the top only due to the highly talented music director who took the entire Indian music industry by storm when he gave music exceptionally well in all the languages this movie was made. Although the songs are the same tune, in each language he tried unique features in the same song. His genius in music is very commendable. Of all the songs in the Malayalam Sooraj Santhosh made a mark in singing this particular song with his melodious voice.
END NOTES
2022 was a year of great movie-making, by a series of talented youngsters for Malayalam. The music industry saw a lot of new faces, of which Kapil Kapilan and Akhil Jaychand are two singers of great promise in the coming years. Among the female voice, Megha Josekutty remained the most promising singer, with Narayani Gopan although did not have any song last year did show great promise. Among the directors Malayalam music scene looks very promising with many talented like Vishnu Vijay proving time and again his talent and experience in doing great music. Among the more established music directors, Shann Rahman, Sushin Shyam, Kailas Menon, Vishal Shekhar, and Hisham all show a lot of promise, as the year 2023 will be an even more exciting year with great movie-making and music-making. Thanks all for reading through, Please do write your comments and thoughts.
