Arun Alat on writing lyrics for ‘Darshana’ from Pranav Mohanlal’s ‘Hridayam’

‘Darshana…’, the song from Vineeth Sreenivasan’s upcoming film Hridayam, starring Pranav Mohanlal, has got over 10 million views since its release on October 25. The first track from the film, composed and sung by Hesham Abdul Wahab, has topped the charts in less than two weeks. Trending on social media, the song has inspired a barrage of memes.

“The memes just mean that the song is already a favourite,” laughs singer Arun Alat, who has recently forayed into song-writing. When he wrote ‘Darshana…’ while on the way from Ernakulam to his hometown, Kasaragod, in September 2019, he didn’t imagine it would become such a hit. “The response has been truly overwhelming and people now know me as the lyricist of ‘Darshana…’,” he adds.

“When Vineethettan narrated the sequence, I could picture the scene clearly. So, it was easy to capture it in words. Vineethettan was particular that we include the word ‘Darshana…’. Hesham sang it so beautifully, and it all fell in place,” says Arun.

Entry to playback singing

Arun, who got his first break as a singer in the Mammootty-starrer Best Actor in 2010, has worked with various composers and has sung over 40 songs in films. The transition to song writing, he says, was organic. “Though I hadn’t envisioned a career as a lyricist, I had always been writing. I have always been interested in the process of making a song — how music, words and emotion come together. It is like connecting the dots.”

‘Darshana…’, however, is not Arun’s first experiment with lyrics. He got an opportunity to write the title song for Home, released earlier this year. “It was like exploring music in a different way. I enjoyed every step of it,” he says. The song, ‘Onnunarnnu Vanna Suryan’ composed by Rahul Subrahmanian and sung by Karthik, received a warm response. “Rojin Thomas, director of Home, and Rahul (Subrahmanian) gave me confidence to write,” Arun adds.

Writing debut

Arun made his song-writing debut with Home, penning another song, ‘Mukilu Thodan’, apart from the title track. However, the film Safe (2019), for which he wrote a song, was released before Home. Then came ‘Darshana…’ for Hridayam (scheduled to be released in January 2022). He has written two more songs for Hridayam.

“We enjoy a song not just for its music. It is a combination of words and the emotion it conveys. When I listen to a song, the musicality of some words remain with me,” he says.

Listening has to be an integral aspect of a musician’s life, Arun believes. “The music you make is the sum total of all the music you have heard in your lifetime. It all comes back to you; it is like muscle memory,” he says.

Arun has been making independent music, too — writing, composing and singing his own songs. He recently released a single ‘Nava Malayalam’ on YouTube.