Singer Renjith Unni
| Photo Credit: Sangeetha Nair
“Every day is a different one for a musician,” says singer Renjith Unni, peering outside at the drizzle on an otherwise sunny morning in Chennai, “You never know when something might click.”
He is speaking from experience. Renjith was aboard a local train in Kerala to music composer Shaan Rahman’s studio to record a song, when he got a telephone call. “Something else has come up. Can we please work on this tomorrow,” Shan told him.
Immediately, Renjith disembarked caught another train and headed home. The next day, he repeated the same routine, reached Shan’s studio and recorded a peppy campus-based track that was titled ‘Jimikki Kammal’. “I don’t know if it would have come out so well had it been recorded the first day. It was destiny, I guess,” he shrugs. A few months later, when it released in 2017, ‘Jimikki Kammal’ ( Velipadinte Pusthakam, featuring Mohanlal) became a viral sensation, with college students performing its catchy tune and steps at cultural festivals and on social media videos.
It changed everything for Renjith Unni who, along with Vineeth Srinivasan, brought infectious energy to the chartbuster.
Six years and a pandemic later, the Kochi-born singer who has spent the last couple of decades in Chennai, is taking on a new avatar: as a music composer. Renjith has composed three songs for Tamil film Parundhaaguthu Oor Kuruvi, scheduled to release on March 24.
“The makers were looking for a new composer, and when they arrived at my studio, I understood that they already had a fair idea of my previous musical work as a singer and signed me on,” beams Renjith.
Parundhaaguthu Oor Kuruvi, directed by Dhanabalan Govindaraj and starring Vivek Prasanna, Nishanth Russo and Gayathiri Iyer, is a ‘forest survival thriller’. “Though it does not have scope for songs like in commercial films, I got an opportunity to make a title track, a montage number and a promotional track,” says Renjith about the album that features singers like Rahul Nambiar, Aravind Srinivas and Aparna Narayanan, “As a debutant composer, I was nervous but the team made me feel at ease and gave me the space and freedom to work out the tunes.”
‘Jimikki Kammal’ might be his biggest song till date, but Renjith’s career started in 2011 itself when he sang for a Kunchako Boban-starrer. In 2016, his track as a tribute to motherhood (‘Jeevan Neeye’, sung by Shweta Mohan) proved his mettle as a melody maker. Renjith, who trains under Carnatic vocalists Krishnakumar and Binni Krishnakumar, is an admirer of M Balamuralikrishna.
After Parundhaaguthu Oor Kuruvi, Renjith looks forward to the release of his upcoming Indo-US feature film The Great Escape that stars Babu Antony and Simon Kook among others. “I’ve composed an item song in Hindi that will also have a Tamil version for this project,” he reveals, adding, “It doesn’t matter if I’m singing or composing or assisting another composer. My only intention is to be engaged with music.”
