Malayalam writer Vaikom Muhammad Basheer gets a musical tribute

‘Jaan’, composed by Aadi Manvin, celebrates Basheer’s work Premalekhanam and features singer-composer Sooraj Santhosh

The simple yet poignant love story of Kesavan Nair and Saramma, characters from Vaikom Muhammad Basheer’s Premalekhanam, is timeless. Celebrating the story and the writer is a music video, ‘Jaan’, composed by Aadi Manvin. Singer-composer Sooraj Santhosh has sung and acted in the video.

Aadi calls it an ‘ode to Basheer’, his favourite author. “I have been a huge fan of his language and writing style. During one of my re-readings of Premalekhanam, I thought about this scenario where a song enters Kesavan Nair’s thoughts as he conveys his feelings for Saramma. That eventually became the music video. ‘Jaan’, the Urdu word, means one’s beloved,” says Aadi.

This is the second song from Aadi’s debut album, The Root Notes. “It has seven songs, each of them exploring a specific emotion,” he adds. The first song, ‘Swayam’, sung by Sithara Krishnakumar and Pradeep Kumar, is about how two women find their happiness. “In ‘Jaan’, the protagonist (Sooraj) comes across Basheer’s works in a library and once he starts reading Premalekhanam, he becomes Kesavan Nair,” explains Aadi. Lyrics is by Ardra VS.

A trained Carnatic vocalist and keyboard player, Aadi has been working in Chennai as an audio engineer. “During the pandemic I was back home in Palakkad and started working on the album,” he says. Next from the album is a Tamil track, Isai, sung by Pradeep. Meanwhile, Aadi hopes to work in films even as he continue to be an independent musician.

‘Jaan’ is streaming on YouTube.