Aavesham lyricist Vinayak Sasikumar: Illuminati reference comes from a ‘gangster’ I knew

Pushing the already tricky concept of Illuminati further and introducing the word ‘Mallu-minati’, who is a ‘cool, thug Malayali’, or using a crazy circus scenario as a metaphor for a goofball bunch of gangsters, the songs — Illuminati and Galatta, among others — from Fahadh Faasil-starrer Aavesham have become viral hits. The lyricist Vinayak Sasikumar, who started his career in the Malayalam industry as a 19-year-old through 2013 films Kutteem Kolum and Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi, tells us about a ‘real-life illuminati’, being old-school and writing lyrics for various listeners.Excerpts…

Aavesham director Jithu Madhavan had said that he and composer Sushin Shyam were not keen on the word illuminati, but you stuck to your guns. It seems to have worked in your favour with the song going hugely viral.
When I got a narration of Rangan Chetan, it reminded me of someone l knew – someone with clandestine gangster ties - whom my friends and I used to teasingly say was an illuminati. The film, with its subtle layer of gangster spoof, had a scope for exaggeration, so I could build line after line on Ranga’s character in the song and this term is the height of that personality.
I had worked earlier with Jithu and Sushin in Romancham, so we knew we were on the same page, and this film had the same dark humor.
I felt that no one would expect a word like this in a dappankuthu song and the novelty of it worked. While I knew Illuminati would click with listeners, I hadn’t expected to get this sort of response. I am getting messages from outside the state too. I am thrilled at the attention that it is getting.
Did you have trouble convinving them on the lyrics for Galatta, which almost has a comedic feel, considering this is a gangster film.
These songs were written after I saw the film’s edit and the comedic personalities of the gangsters were very clear. So this circus metaphor came to me. The panther and tiger are dangerous creatures, but in a circus, they do balancing acts and ride cycles, controlled by the ringmaster; here, too, it is dangerous fun orchestrated by Rangan. I had a director and composer who understood the idea.

Renowed lyricist Girish Puthenchery had once said that he needed to know details on cinematography and production design to write the songs. Is this sort of thing important to you?
It is very important. If I’m writing all the songs for a movie, I make sure I watch the final edit to get a visual understanding of the detailing, such as the backstory of Ranga’s character. It was very subtle in the story, but after watching the edit I was able to bring a feel of that in Illuminati.
In the song Jaada, I watched the shots to see where the term ‘jaada’ should come specificially in the visuals. In the song, freshers are walking into college and this word comes right when they are in front of their seniors to whom they want to show their swag.
Do you keep the taste of listeners in mind when you write?
Yes, a 100 per cent. I always think of the target audience when I write. For the five songs in Rajisha Vijayan's June, I aimed to reach out to young female audiences and the feedback on social media and through personal messages to me suggested that this was the audience the songs struck a chord with.
So if I write for the youth and older listeners say it doesn’t make any sense to them, it doesn’t bother me, but if I write for the latter and they don’t like it, then, I’m bothered.
Age-wise, I am a young lyricist, but ironically, my favourite music is old-school. My favourite composer is Vidyasagar and I also love the songs of MS Baburaj and P Bhaskaran. So I am comfortable writing youthful and mature, melodic music.

Dream songwriting scenario
I grew up listening to the Girish Puthencherry, Kaithapuram school of lyrics. I enjoyed the music of MS Baburaj, too, so I fell in love Bhaskaran Master and Yusufali Kechery’s lines. This is my taste. I would be happy to sit in a room with a composer and his harmonium. Of course, we can’t work like this in films anymore, but I love hearing about old-school composing sessions.