Raghu Dixit debuts in Malayalam with ‘Koode’

Bengaluru-based music composer, singer and performer Raghu Dixit has made his debut as a composer and singer in Malayalam film, ‘Koode’, releasing on July 13.

Raghu says that he didn’t think twice when he got offered the film. He also felt that he was able to connect with the film at many levels. Raghu shares with Metrolife his experience of working on ‘Koode’

What made you accept ‘Koode’?

When I got a call from Anjali Menon, I left Bengaluru to Ooty almost immediately. When I heard the narration of the story, I had a huge lump in my throat and immediately said yes to it without a second thought.

What did you like about the narration?

The movie is about strong relationships within a family. It is about two children and their relationship with their parents and a relationship between a brother and sister. There are other smaller interwoven stories. The movie is mainly knit around a brother and sister and father and son.

Which aspect did you connect with the most?

The take away was the father and son relationship. For me, that was the biggest moment in the film because personally, I saw myself and my dad in it a lot. We had this love-hate relationship and it took a lot for us to break that down and become friends. It is a very common thing for youngsters to think that their parents are against them and they have not done enough. And many years later when you look back, you would realise that in every small gesture there has been an amazing cloud of love that they were actually exhibiting but just that the language that they used is not a language that you understood at that time. For me, this is the most beautiful part.

Have you sung any songs?

Yes, I’ve sung ‘Aarorum ’. It was a phenomenal challenge because I don’t know Malayalam and it turned out to be one of the most difficult languages to sing. I would have sung that song at least 25 times to get it right. I have composed four songs and sung two songs - one is ‘Parane’ along with Benny Dayal and ‘ Aarorum’ was solo.

Were you able to emotionally connect to the film?

The point was to make the melodies first and melodically respond to the script. The rest of the content was filled in by the amazing lyricist Rafeeq Ahammed. I saw him write the song ‘Parane’ in six minutes right in front of me. Words just flow for him. Shruti Namboodri who wrote the title song ‘Koode.’

Did you have to change your style? And how was it working with Anjali Menon?

Working with Anjali was the easiest because the brief was very specific. As a composer, I didn’t have to shoot in the dark and that made 90 per cent of my job easy. There was no situation where I had to create multiple options. Whatever I came up with the first instance got approved. That’s what happens when the directors brief is very clear.

Equation with M Jayachandran...

His compositions are very simple but they really stay in your heart. At first, I was wondering if I could match up to his standard.