It would be 10 in the morning and time to leave the house. There'd be patients waiting at the clinic. But Dr Donald Mathew wouldn't go. He would sit at home, and sing for an hour, all by himself. This went on for a while till he realised he couldn't do it anymore. He left his homeopathic practice, moved house from Kattappana in Idukki to Chottanikkara in Ernakulam, to be in music full time. It seems to have paid off. Dr Donald has composed for a film for the first time, and also sang a song. Melle comes with four lovely tracks — three by Dr Donald and one by Vijay Jacob, who has been a keyboard programmer for 12 years. Both of them had come to the industry with dreams of one day singing — in case of Donald, and composing — in case of Vijay.
"I became a homeopathic doctor, even when I had wanted to learn music, because of the pressures at home. But after that, I went to Chennai with a dream to sing. I was there for eight years and sang many devotional songs, and Tamil dubbed tracks — there must be at least a thousand of these. But after that, I had to come back home to Kattappana," Donald says. In Chennai too he carried on his homeopathic practice. He couldn't always find time for it, since he'd be away singing, leaving behind angry patients. But Donald was happy he could sing tracks for many great singers including Dr Yesudas, K.S. Chithra and S.P. Balasubrahmanyam. "I even sang in chorus with Karthik and others in Lagaan for A.R. Rahman."
After coming back home, he composed two devotional albums. Musician friends in Chennai appreciated him, told him he should try films. Melle came because the director Binu Ulahannan has been a friend and Donald was with him since the story was conceived. He composed Konji Konji, Hridyam, Melle, the last he sang with Shweta.
Vijay composed the fourth song — Punjapadathe — a folkish tune in Vaikom Vijayalakshmi's voice. "Of course it makes me happy to see the acceptance. In our society, film music is most rewarding, it is what reaches the people," he says. He began keyboard programming, with the hope of one day composing independently. In the years that went by, Vijay worked with many music directors like Bijibal. This is the first time he does background score for a film and also composes a song.
