The music industry today has turned into a very exciting space. Rigid age-old barriers and formats have vanished thanks to new technology. The advent of social media has given a level-playing field to emerging and established musicians.
Musician Sunny Viswanath has been scoring music for albums and films. What is commendable about him is his willingness to introduce talented young singers from across the world and country through his stage shows and albums.
After a long hiatus Sunny will now be scoring music for an upcoming Malayalam film Cochin Shaadi at Chennai 03.
The film came through a friend’s referral. Director Manjith saw his work and confirmed Sunny. He informs, “In a volte face, I am composing songs for which lyrics have already been written. There are five songs in the film, of which four are melodies and one is a contemporary EDM number.”
Though busy scoring music for the film, he also gave wings to his dream project — his devotional album Chinmaya Geethangal, which was recently released in Singapore to rave reviews. A six-month project, it was a new experience for Sunny since he had never attempted something in the devotional format earlier. “I composed the album as a kind of dedication to my brother who passed away and to the nation.” What is novel about the twelve-song album is that it is an amalgamation of sixteen artistes from six states — most of them related to one another. Take a look at the singers — Suresh Wadkar and wife Padma Wadkar (Sunny’s sister), P. Jayachandran, Delsy Ninan, Tanmaya Narain and Manju Narain (daughter and wife of actor Narain) Ramshi Ahmed, Simran Sehgal and father Paramjit Singh Sehgal, Sreerag Ram, Kamalaja Rajgopal, Praveen and Deepanshi Nagar.
“I believe where words fail, music speaks and this album has elements of Carnatic, Hindustani, Western and fusion, which will appeal to all kinds of music lovers. This album has been an experiment,” he says, also adding, “The songs are raga-based, which was a challenge and three videos have been released. I plan to release a video every month,” he informs. What Sunny wants to highlight are the remix songs Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram and Vaishnava Jana To that have been receiving good reviews.
He speaks about the songs in the album, “I have done a Vigneshwara song in Hamsadhvani Raga and a Western style too. So essentially, I have tried to bring about two styles to the same song to appease the traditional enthusiasts as well as the modern youth.” About his future endeavors, he says a single album Say Sara, in Hindi, is in the final stages. Also a romantic duet album is also in the planning stages.
