Vishal Bhardwaj with Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan and AK Balan, Minister of Culture

Vishal Bhardwaj on bagging the best music award for a Malayalam film recently
Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 29, 2019)

In 1999, Vishal Bhardwaj won a National Award for Best Music Direction for Vinay Shukla’s Godmother in the same year that he composed the score for cinematographer Venu’s debut directorial, Daya. Twenty years later, his score for director-friend Venu’s 2018 Malayalam film, Carbon, has bagged the Kerala State Award for best music.

Says Vishal, “For many years, I have been watching Malayalam films. I have a lot of respect for their cinema. Venu wanted me to give the music for Carbon as well and I was game as I love to experiment with languages other than Hindi.”

The 49th Kerala State Awards were held in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday. Vishal was conferred with the award by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Ask him on the process of designing the score for a regional film, and he says, “The subject didn’t require colossal research as it wasn’t a region specific score. It’s a human story that can happen anywhere. I worked with the lyricist on the album and was in Kerala for a couple of weeks to compose the songs.”

Carbon, featuring Fahadh Faasil and Mamta Mohandas, released in January last year.