Jakes Bejoy on creating Vetta Mrigam from Kuruthi

By Express News Service

In a note that serves not only as an insightful piece of moviemaking wisdom but also a fascinating piece of trivia, composer Jakes Bejoy briefly described how the Kuruthi team worked together to come up with the rousing Vetta Mrigam track from the film. 

Jakes shared that filmmaker Manu Warrier had approached him to do two songs, telling him that the second one should not have an adrenaline rush given its placement before the film’s final act. “When I sent a tune to him, he replied that it’s doable while also suggesting that the tune be sent to Prithviraj because, well, he is the producer.

So, upon hearing the track, Prithviraj sent me a short text with a parable to describe the mood he was looking for,” said Jakes as he went on to share the WhatsApp interaction between him and the actor. In the text, Prithviraj says, “It is a lovely piece of music, but I would ideally like an underlying layer of desperation/tempo in the tune. Imagine super slow-mo of a lion chasing a gazelle.

You know the inevitable will happen, but you hope maybe the gazelle finds a forest to run into and disappear, maybe the lion trips. The gazelle doesn’t have a plan.. all it knows is that it should run. Run as fast as nature lets it. The lion is quietly confident as it chases… knows it’s made to outrun the gazelle… and that it will. Now juxtapose this story against a very deep layer of sadness/despair.”

The Vetta Mrigam track, released online by the team on Sunday, is among Jakes’ most well-received work since the title track from Ranam and the Operation Java soundtrack. He is also part of three upcoming Prithviraj films—Bramam (the Malayalam adaptation of Andhadhun), Jana Gana Mana, and Kaduva. Recently, we learnt that Jakes is working on the soundtrack of the Dulquer Salmaan-Rosshan Andrrews movie, Salute, aside from the Mammootty project Puzhu, helmed by Ratheena.