Baburaj biopic, depicting his life and evolution of film music, in the works

MS Baburaj, one of the legends of the Malayalam music scene, whose compositions, such as Anuraga Ganampole, Innale Mayangunbol and Oru Pushpam Mathramen, among others in the 1960s and 70s, are evergreen hits, is set to have a biopic helmed by director-editor Vinod Sukumaran. The story will play out as an exploration of the life and work of the musical genius by his real-life great granddaughter and singer Nimisha Salim.

While the generally held notion is that Baburaj’s father was a Hindustani classical musician from Bengal, who had deserted his Malayali wife and returned home, apparently, according to his older daughter Sabira Ibrahim, who is providing first-hand details of the story, pooh-poohs this. In fact, the facts and fallacies of this history is exactly what Vinod wants to tackle through this biopic about the musician, who introduced elements of ghazal, mapilla pattu and Hindustani classical into Malayalam film music. “Apparently, his biographies were written to build a grandiose myth of the man, by people who did not really know him. I wish to show the imaginative space Baburaj was able to transport people to, despite the problems in his life. I also want to look at the evolution of Malayalam cinema music through different eras,” says the National Award-winning director.

“What attracted me to his story is that he had an economically disadvantaged background and had no training in classical music; so then, what was this divine power that enabled him to compose the music that was much loved by Malayali audiences? Also, in my research I was disappointed to find that he never won an award,” he says.

Speaking about selecting an actor to play Baburaj, Vinod says, “I have to choose someone with care. The person would need to familiarise himself with playing the harmonium, something Baburaj had an amazing skill in.” While the actor has not been finalised, a couple of family members will feature in the film.