Iyobinte Pusthakam was promoted as Amal Neerad's dream project and the film was a hot topic among moviebuffs as an experimental movie with Fahadh Faasil and Lal in lead roles even before the release. Even the visuals and posters of the movie were also attractive. But there was no hullabaloo about the movie's music, it was like the promoters of Iyobinte Pusthakam almost forgot about that department.
However, only after seeing the movie did viewers understand the importance of music in it. In all the recently released period movies music played a key role and Iyobinte Pusthakam kept the trend going.
Music before the movie
Right after the initial discussions about the movie, Yakzan Gary Pereira and Neha S. Nair were entrusted with its music. Though the story that was filmed was different from the initially discussed one, since they got more time to work on the music, they were able to give better music, admits the duo.
Theeyattam...
It can be said without doubt that the best song in Iyobinte Pusthakam is Theeyattam.... The music that was made by bending original tribal music with the beats of western instruments is magical. Towards the end of the song, a language that is different from ours and sounds that are not familiar to us can be heard. These elements give the song a mood of celebration. However, the picturisation of this song cannot claim that originality.
Music directors on Theeyattam
For this song, we used the voice of a person who has not done playback singing. Everyone was very hopeful about this song, and there are many reasons for that.
It was a song of celebration.
The voice we used in it was natural.
In that song, 95 per cent of the time we used live instruments.
The Arabic lines at the end of the song were sung by a Moroccan singer. He had come to Kerala on vacation, and he became part of that song on our request. When we got the voice of that person, who had his own band at home, we expected the song to become a huge hit.
Raave...
Raave... is the first song of the movie that was released and can be said to be the only love song in the movie. Though this love song, pictured on Isha Sharvani and Fahadh Faasil, is not on the same level as other love songs in Malayalam, it is a different experiment. The most significant factor is that the voice of Neha, who has given the music, matches the semi foreign character of Isha Sharvani in the movie.
Music directors on Raave...
Raave... was made to meet the demand for a commercial love song. This song was first sung by another person. It was done in such a way that it felt like it was sung by a person who did not know Malayalam well. However, at the last minute, that decision changed, and it was decided that Neha should sing it. The character of Isha is the daughter of a Malayali and a foreigner, who has never gone abroad. So, we felt that a non-Malayali pronunciation would be odd. In the movie too, the voice of Isha's character has been given by Neha. The speciality of this song is that we did not do a love song that is generally seen in Malayalam.
On the song Maane...
Maane... is a nostalgic song. This song gives the rhythmic mojo of a country song. This song, with excellent visualisation, has been sung by Neha and Anil Ram. Live orchestra was used for this song, which comes at a critical moment in the movie.
Music directors on Maane...
This was the first song we did for this movie. Since it was in a style familiar to us, we could do it easily. Though it might sound like an old country song, the lines were fresh. Some lines at the beginning of the song were arranged by Neha. However, the lines were meaningfully arranged by Rafeeq. We can say that this song, which we enjoyed creating, reflects our style of music. It was done that way for its mojo.
Character themes
The most important musical aspect of Iyobinte Pusthakam is that each character was given suitable theme music. Making separate theme music for main characters like Aloshi, Iyob and Martha was a different experience. Separate themes for characters were made using the tunes that were used in the background while introducing the character.
The themes that were more effective as per the characters were that of Fahadh and Padmapriya. The voice of Usha Uthup in the background of the character theme of Padmapriya was recognisable and it revealed the emotional turbulence of that character, which had limited dialogues in the movie. Characters that turned out to be excellent through background music and expressions were that of Padmapriya and Jayasurya.
The background score, used throughout in the movie, was suitable to the scenes and it turned viewers anxious. It is praiseworthy that Yakzan and Neha were able to excel in that than giving music to songs. It can be said that these new faces in music direction were able to earn the praise that the music was as good as the movie. To a great extent, the role of music in making this movie a success cannot be hidden.
Reaction of Neha and Yakzan
We are very happy that background music was praised a lot. There is only one secret behind that: we got a lot of time. We got three months to do only background music. No Malayalam movie gets so much time to do background music. That was our success. Usually, only three or four days are given for that. But, we used the time we got to do experiment after experiment to give music to Iyobinte Pusthakam.
The most difficult theme song to do was that of Aloshi, the character of Fahadh. We found it difficult because we had to give heroic feel to the music. For that, we had to spend a lot of time too. The theme songs were done after the movie was made. Many people who have seen the movie have said that Usha Uthup's voice has influenced the character of Padmapriya a lot. Whatever, we believe that we were able to make use of the opportunity we got.