His musical talent found an outlet when he joined his first rock band aged 12, and then played with a successful funk/rock and roll band ‘Panatella’ for several years after that. He moved to creating jingles for advertisements and corporate films, singing several songs for the same.
Music career
In the year 2010, K was brought on board for director Mysskin's film Yuddham Sei. The film's sound track was a hit. He then composed for Mysskin's Mugamoodi starring Jiiva. His next big career break came when famed cinematographer Rajeev Ravi roped him for his directorial venture in Malayalam, Annayum Rasoolum. The movie went on to become a cult favourite.
He marked his debut in Bollywood with the Hindi remake of the hit Tamil film Pizza, by composing the background score of the movie.[2] In 2015, the film Kirumi opened to positive response subsequently becoming one of the most acclaimed Tamil films of the year.
Almost for the entire first half of the year 2016, K was working on the Dulquer Salmaan starrer Malayalam film Kammatipaadam, his second collaboration with Rajeev Ravi.[3] K's background score for the film too received tremendous praise, with a reviewer saying "Composer K's music peps up these action sequences. With his adrenaline igniting music, he even manages to make the sight of bones cracking look cool. He is to Rajeev Ravi what Amit Trivedi and Sneha Khanwalker were to Anurag Kashyap in Gangs Of Wasseypur".[4]
Kallappadam, directed by debutant Vadivelu, was the first film in which K was featured on-screen. He had previously turned down a role in his first film Yuddham Sei, but had agreed to play one of the leads in Kallappadam.[2]
Directed by M.Manikandan, Aandavan Kattalai, his next major release was very well received. The music for the film, including the 9 songs, was supplemented by a background score where the lyrics of the songs were based on the dialogues on screen.[5] In 2017, a Telugu remake of the film was made by Chinni Krishna, named London Babulu, which featured music re-used from K's Tamil original. The remake only featured 5 out of the 9 tracks from the original.[6]
Ammani, Lakshmy Ramakrishnan's 3rd film as a director, was released a month later amidst mounds of praises. The background music of the film was handled very maturely, leaving a lot of silent spaces, so as to not disturb the emotional and poignant storyline. The highlight of the Ammani album was 'Mazhai Ingillaye', sung by the prodigious Vaikom Vijayalakshmi, who rendered the song pitch perfect, adding to the unique blend of Carnatic music and synth sounds.[7][8][9]
In 2016, K composed the background score for N. Padmakumar's 'A Billion Colour Story' which won several awards and accolades worldwide, including Best Feature, LIFF, London, and Best Feature Audience Award, IFF, Los Angeles.[10][11][12]
In 2017, Sankalp Reddy's Ghazi (The Ghazi Attack), a Telugu-Hindi film for which he worked as a music director, was released.[13][14] K received appreciation for his "unobtrusive" background score.[15] That same year, Anando Brahma, a Telugu horror-comedy, which he worked as the composer, was released.[16][17] The promo song features Malgudi Subha[18] and is a rendition of a Mohammed Rafi song from 1970.[19]
K has composed the music for the 2023 German documentary, Sara Mardini – Gegen den Strom directed by Charlie Wai Feldman.[26] K composed the music for the 2023 British documentary ‘Neither Confirm nor Deny’ a British directed by Philip Carter.[27]
^kavirayani, suresh (14 April 2018). "Ghazi wins national award". Deccan Chronicle. Archived from the original on 16 December 2019. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
