Little Aradhana has conquered a million hearts with her brilliant rendition of the song ‘Vayaadi petha pulla’ from the forthcoming Tamil movie ‘Kana’. The young vocalist, who is Tamil superstar Sivakarthikeyan’s daughter, is just four years old, and her song is already trending super hit on social media. Within just two weeks of its release, more than 20 million viewers have watched the song on YouTube.
Musician Dibu Ninan Thomas has composed the music for the movie 'Kana'. Born to Keralite parents, Dibu was born and brought up in Tamil Nadu. The young composer speaks to Onmanorama about the superhit song sung by Aradhana and his experiences of working in 'Kana'.
Dream come true
Dibu, actor Sivakarthikeyan and the movie’s director Arun Raja Kamaraj are college friends. Though the trio studied engineering, they were active participants in all the arts and cultural activities.
“We had dreamt of doing a movie together in which Siva would be the hero, Arun the director and I would be the music composer. Though that dream was alive in our hearts during our college days, we moved to different fields after studies. 'Kana' is Arun’s first movie as an independent director. While discussing about 'Kana', we abruptly planned for a movie project in which the three of us would be involved. That is how we conceived this movie. 'Kana' was born out of our friendship,” reveals Dibu.
Unique song
It was 'Kana' director Kamaraj who decided that a child’s voice should be used for the song. Aradhana’s name came up when the friends were discussing about introducing a child singer. Dibu confesses that they were not sure whether she could have pulled off the song as they had imagined.
“We, however, were hopeful that Aradhana could do well as she too shares Siva’s infectious energy. We had always noticed that she was such a smart and jolly little girl who sang often. The track of the song was given to her a few days ago. The song was recorded at around 11 pm, and she sang it with much gusto. She beautifully rendered the song within just 20 minutes into the recording, and went home with Siva. We took three takes, and chose the best among them. So the song that we all are enjoying right now was in fact an experiment done by us,” he says.
Five songs that pep up the movie include a romantic number and a lullaby, the latter being a soulful rendition which highlights the strong emotional bond shared by a father and his daughter.
Entry into movies
Dibu, who is trained in piano and Carnatic music, says that more than singing he was always interested in composing music. “My training in Carnatic music has helped me a lot in composing as well. I began to compose music independently soon after I did my engineering. Later I became the assistant of noted composer Santhosh Narayanan. My debut movie was ‘Maragatha Naanayam’, and 'Kana' is my second project. I will be composing the music for three more movies as well. I like to work in Malayalam if good screenplays come up,” says the budding composer.
About 'Kana'
Dibu reveals that Kana is a sports movie. “It is about women’s cricket. Though we may have seen many other sports movies, this is a unique theme. It is the story of a bunch of rural women who dreams big and reaches the top of the world. 'Kana'gives prime importance to women and their dreams," he says.
