Shabareesh hits the right note

Shabareesh Varma has no idea how it happens, but the reel life songs he writes have a way of coming true in real life. He would definitely have written the song Ithu Puthan Kaalam for the film Premam much earlier if he had known the day after writing it, money would come into his hands and solve his financial troubles.

But as it happened, he wrote the song Kaalam Kettupoi first and two days later, the studio that recorded it was struck by lightning and everything was ruined. But luckily the laptop with all the songs of Premam was safe with its music director Rajesh Murugan.

Stories like these come trickling one after the other from Shabareesh. But the lyricist-actor just has no time to tell them all. His schedule is packed with media interviews.

“It was not the same two years ago when I wrote the songs for Neram and acted in a small role,” he says. But then Neram brought out the Pistah song that went viral over the internet and has now about 87 lakh views on YouTube. For Premam, it is not just one song doing rounds on social networks. At first it was Aluva Puzha that was talked about, and then it became Scene Contra. Now they have released another song — Malare — that’s becoming popular too.

“Scene Contra was the name of a short film I wanted to do, but that didn’t work out. I had started the idea by writing a song and found that ‘Vendra’ rhymes with ‘Contra’. So the famous first lines go: Avalu Vendra, Ivalu Vendra, Ee Kaanunna Ivalmaronnum Vendra. Love Vendra, Namukk Vendra, Ividallelum Scene Motham Contra. But the short film didn’t work out and Scene Contra became an apt song for Premam. This time, Shabareesh also plays a bigger role, as the hero George’s pal Shambu. “Acting is my first choice. But I love writing too. And sound engineering is what I have been doing in Tamil films like Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya, Jigarthanda, Pizza 2 and others.”

He wishes to thank Anwar Rasheed for trusting the team and becoming producer. “Alphonse (the director) has known us for 15 years, we have been friends since college. But for Anwar, we are all new.”

‘It was not the same two years ago when I wrote the songs for Neram and acted in a small role’