Longing to do a Western: Justin Prabhakaran

Up-and-coming composer Justin Prabhakaran on his latest hit

July 02, 2016 06:30 pm | Updated 06:42 pm IST

Justin Prabhakaran is particular that no two songs of his sound the same. The composer whose stock has risen following the rousing reception to ‘Adiyae Azhagae’ in Oru Naal Koothu , is quite excited about working with young directors. “It’s great that they give us the freedom to explore and experiment,” he says.

He says he owes the success of ‘Adiyae Azhagae’ to director Nelson Venkatesan. “It was his idea to mix rural and Western styles. The success of a song often also depends on the picturisation, and Nelson’s great video helped too.” On borrowing lines for ‘Eppo Varuvaaro’ from Tamil poet Gopalakrishna Bharathi, Justin again credits Nelson. “I had the easy job of fine-tuning it to suit today’s taste, and it quickly found its way into the hearts of Carnatic music fans.” The composer, previously a sound engineer working for Harris Jayaraj, attributes his rise to the knowledge he gained from working on short films.

Justin announced his arrival with a bang in Pannaiyarum Padminiyum , whose songs were huge hits, especially ‘Pesuraen Pesuraen’ and ‘Onakkaga Poranthaenae’. “Though ‘Pesuraen Pesuraen’ was filmed with the backdrop of a death in the family, the audience could relate to the love blossoming. In ‘Onakkaga Poranthaenae’, the tune had to bridge two generations. Vaali sir’s lyrics were also instrumental in its success, and he promised to work on all my songs in my forthcoming film, but sadly, it wasn’t meant to be.”

Up next for Justin is Ulkuthu and Kaala Koothu . Justin said, “These will be perfect foils for my previous work. In Ulkuthu , an action film, I’ve composed a few commercial numbers backed by simple lyrics.”

Being from Madurai himself, perhaps he relates more to these action films? Justin says it’s far from it. “Fusion is my forte. My dream is to work on a completely Western album, provided the film has space for it.”

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.