Malayalam cinema is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Malayalam language, which is widely spoken in the state of Kerala, India. In 1982, Elippathayam won the Sutherland Trophy at the London Film Festival, and Most Original Imaginative Film of 1982 by the British Film Institute. The film Marana Simhasanam has won the prestigious Caméra d'Or at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.
The music of Kerala has a complex history. It is not the same as Malayalam poetry, although most of it is poetry driven. Kerala has a rich tradition in Carnatic music. Songs formed a major part of early Malayalam literature, which traces its origin to the 9th century CE. The significance of music in the culture of Kerala can be established just by the fact that in Malayalam language, musical poetry was developed long before prose. With the development of music in the region, different branches were formed out of it.
Salil Chowdhury was an Indian music director, songwriter, lyricist, writer and poet who predominantly composed for Bengali, Hindi and Malayalam films. He composed music for films in 13 languages. This includes over 75 Hindi films, 41 Bengali films, 27 Malayalam films, and a few Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Gujarati, Odia and Assamese films. His musical ability was widely recognised and acknowledged in the Indian film industry. He was an accomplished composer and arranger who was proficient in several musical instruments, including flute, the piano, and the esraj. He was also widely acclaimed and admired for his inspirational and original poetry in Bengali.
Alphons Joseph is an Indian music director and playback singer who works in Malayalam film industry. He debuted with 2003 movie Vellithira. Alphons is also noted for singing "Aaromale" from the film Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, which was composed by A. R. Rahman.
Rock N' Roll is a 2007 Malayalam musical comedy film written and directed by Ranjith, starring Mohanlal, Lakshmi Rai, Mukesh, Lal, Siddique, Manoj K.Jayan, Rahman, Harisree Ashokan and Jagathy Sreekumar. The film tells the story of seven musicians in Chennai, the major centre of film production in South India. The film was released on November 9 coinciding with Deepavali. It received negative reviews and was considered a commercial disaster at the time of release. Over the years, the movie along with Mohanlal's performance has attained a cult status. Suraj Venjaramoodu's cameo role as a fraud musician was widely acclaimed and is often considered to be one of his early breakthroughs.
Venkateswaran Dakshinamoorthy was a veteran carnatic musician and composer and music director of Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi films. His work was predominantly in Malayalam films.
Rahul Raj is an Indian music composer. He has composed and produced scores and soundtracks predominantly for Malayalam movies. He is an alumnus of the prestigious Berklee College of Music and holds a postgraduate degree in scoring for films, TV and video games.
Prashant Pillai is a music producer and composer from India.
Gopi Sundar C.S. is an Indian music director, programmer, playback singer, songwriter, actor and performer who works in the Malayalam, Telugu and Tamil film industries.
Vidyasagar is an Indian composer, musician and singer who works predominantly in the Tamil, Malayalam, and Telugu film industries. After working with several composers as assistant and conductor, Vidyasagar made his debut as a film composer in the 1989 Tamil film Poo Manam and nicknamed as Melody King Working for over 225 feature films, he is the recipient of one National Award, multiple State Awards and five Filmfare Awards he frequently work with actor vijay which all of the albums were successful and is widely regarded as one of the finest and most acclaimed composers in the history of Indian Cinema.
Arun R often credited as Achu Rajamani, is an Indian film score and soundtrack composer and singer. He has scored music for several Malayalam, Telugu and Tamil films. He made his music direction debut in the Telugu film Nenu Meeku Telusa? in 2008.
Sudeep Kumar is an Indian playback singer. He sings Indian classical, devotional, and popular music. He has recorded more than 5000 songs in languages including Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Sanskrit, during a career spanning two decades. He is the president of Malayalam playback singers' association SAMAM
Santhosh Narayanan is an Indian film composer and musician who has worked predominately worked in Tamil cinema, while also having some Telugu and Malayalam films to his credit.
Varun Unni is an Indian composer and singer, who predominantly composes for television commercials. He has also composed for a few feature films, having debuted with the 2012 Malayalam film Annum Innum Ennum.
Anil Johnson is an Indian film composer and record producer who works in Malayalam cinema. Besides feature films, he has composed for commercials, documentaries, corporate films, short films and music videos. Prior to becoming a mainstream score composer, he worked as an arranger for several other composers and bands in the Indian music industry. He has also directed television commercials in the mid-2000s.
Justin Prabhakaran is an Indian film score and soundtrack composer. He has scored music mostly for Tamil films and also a few Malayalam and Telugu films besides one Hindi film. He made his debut as a film composer in the 2014 Tamil film Pannaiyarum Padminiyum.
John P. Varkey was an Indian guitarist, songwriter and composer. He began his career as a session guitarist. He brought out three albums with Jigsaw Puzzle by the label BMG Crescendo which were innovative and well accepted by the new generation and led to the formation of band Avial. John discontinued from Avial and independently directed music for many Indian big time feature films with prominent productions and directors. His ideas and innovative sound textures made many films come to life. Varkey first came to prominence as a member of the Malayalam rock band Avial, which itself evolved out of a band called Jigsaw Puzzle. Varkey was the guitarist and songwriter for the Thrissur-based band, Slowpedalers.
Arun Alat is an Indian playback singer, music composer and Lyricist who made a space in Malayalam film industry as a singer with his debut song "Swapnamoru Chaakku" from the 2010 film Best Actor.
Vijay Jacob, is an Indian music composer.
Midhun Asokan is an Indian music producer, programmer and composer who predominantly works in South Indian Film Industry. He is the music composer for Asif Ali starrer Malayalam Cinema named A Ranjith Cinema, background score composer of Kannada movie Veeram and upcoming movie Ranaraksasa. He has been the music producer and programmer for more than 600 feature films in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu film Industry. He was the programmer for songs in the movie Bhayanakam composed by M. K. Arjunan, which won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Composer.
