Opinion is divided over whether director Aashiq Abu has done justice to Malayalam cinema’s first ever horror-romantic-thriller, Bhargavi Nilayam (1964), with his interpretation, Neelavelicham. With screenplay written by Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, based on his own short story, ‘Neelavelicham’, the remake has retained songs from the original composed by the legendary MS Baburaj. The songs have been remixed and rearranged by the composer duo of Bijibal and Rex Vijayan. In an interview with The Hindu MetroPlus, Bijibal talks about approaching the timeless songs and recreating a new soundscape.
The composer admits that when Aashiq suggested the project, he was not enthused about remixing the compositions that are close to every Malayali music lover. “I hesitated not because I did not have the confidence. We are used to hearing these songs in a particular way and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to create the same feel. Another aspect was that while the aesthetical thoughts of several minds are invested in a song, when you work on those songs again, that process does not happen and so the impact is less. Singers, while learning the original, go into different layers of that particular song, creating a beautiful chemistry. It doesn’t happen again,” he explains.
