Meet the lucky student, Aby

One day, Mollywood music composer and programmer Aby Tom Cyriac got a call from scriptwriter Bipin Chandran asking whether it was the same Aby whom Bipin had taught in school. It was. At the end of the conversation, Bipin expressed his desire to work with him. And thus happened the music of the movie Paavada.

Aby, who started off as a keyboard player, recollects: “Bipin was my Malayalam teacher in Class X. I was quite active in extracurricular activities then. I used to score background for dramas written and directed by him for school festivals. There were three dramas every year.”

After he left school, he had lost connection with Bipin. “Later, when he saw my name in short films Murukan and Moonamidam, he enquired about me to RJ Shaan. We talked and rest is history,” adds Aby, who has composed two songs and one poem in Paavada.

During discussions, Bipin gave no assurance to Aby on whether he would be composing the music. “He said he would brief me the situation and if others liked my tune, I would be the music composer. I did two tunes first, but it didn’t work. Luck struck me with the third tune and I became the music director of Paavada. The funniest part is that, I have done orchestration before for his movies, but we never met,” he says.

Aby got into music industry 10 years back. His first movie was Second Innings, but due to certain issues, it didn’t come out. Paavada is special for Aby as it opened his avenue to mainstream music, rekindled his relationship with his teacher and gave him a chance to make Jayasurya croon a song.

“Jayettan sang the second song in the film, which details the character of Prithviraj. I created seven tunes for the song; everyone liked the last tune. But Prithviraj told me the song required a curiosity factor. Keeping that in mind, I composed one tune and the song was born,” says the self-taught music composer.

Since it was a funny song, it didn’t demand a trained voice. When Bipin asked him about the singer, Aby suggested the idea of one celebrity singing a song for another celebrity. They zeroed in on Jayasurya, who was surprised about the choice. However, he accepted the offer.

“I knew Jayettan before as he was the producer of Moonamidam. When he came to know that I am the composer, he called me and asked funnily ‘nee enikk pani thannu elleda’,” says Aby, adding that the song came out well.