Verses of admiration

She is not the only one of her kind, there are many more Meenukuttees who take pride in wrapping their notebooks with their dear actor’s poster, love somebody mimicking their body language, wear sunglasses and feel goosebumps rising just for the love of it. The Lalettaa... song that runs against the backdrop of a fan tale in the Mohanlal movie teaser is nothing longer than a jingle. The 50-second thing amazingly became a quick favourite of every hardcore Lalettan fan in no time. The man behind the verses, doctor-turned-lyricist Manu Manjith, says there’s more to come.

Only a part of the lengthy title song was included in the teaser and Manu literally felt the doctor’s dilemma rising to finish writing the lines. “Usually I get stuck thinking what to write, but here I was wondering what not to write. In the rest of the portion comes a lot of movie names popular for Lalettan. So many years and huge number of movies, I was confused what to pick and how to write, since it should finally appeal to all,” he says. “His films have passed through generations. The ones who lapped up Kireedam and Pulimurugan are not the same. The song, therefore, had to be appealing to all, surpassing time and age,” he adds.

The lyricist was told it would be a little girl singing. The voice in the song belongs to Prarthana Indrajith, daughter of celebrity couple Indrajith and Poornima. Challenge number one was to keep it simple so that every Malayali could connect. “I have not heard anybody say that they don’t like Lalettan. Perhaps, they may feel his yesteryear movies and those of today differ. I myself being his fan, I had to work and rework on the lines to sculpt the final form. He has an audience that equally treats Kireedam and Sadayam, and Thoovanathumbikal and Vasthuhara. Then comes Kilukkam, Chithram and more. I won’t reveal it now, the song concludes as a salutation to him,” says he.

In the Sajid Yahiya film, Manju Warrier appears as the fangirl Meenukutty and Indrajith is her husband Sethumadhavan. Salim Kumar, Soubin Shahir, etc. complete the cast. From the day of the teaser release, several versions of the song from the lyrical video to the video recording of the launch ceremony to the fan-made versions are filling YouTube. The warm music, a bigger attraction of the song, is composed by Nihal Sadhiq and the hook was a suggestion of music composer Tony Joseph. Manu’s inbox is flooded with the good words for his verses. He has written four more songs for the film.