Malayalam films that used musical leitmotifs

A leitmotif is simply a constantly recurring musical phrase that denotes a particular person, place, or idea. It is used to convey different feelings or even heroism of a character. The major purpose of using leitmotifs is to evoke a certain emotional impact among the audience while watching a particular scene in a movie. Although leitmotifs consist of several elements and are not limited to soundtracks, here let's take a look at some of the musical leitmotifs used in Malayalam cinema.

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Hear the music: Yodha Theme

The Mohanlal starrer ‘Yodha’, released in the year 1992, told the life of a young man who is destined to protect a young Lama in Nepal, who is being chased by a dangerous cult. The music for the film was composed by AR Rahman and his brilliant use of leitmotif could be seen throughout the film. Whenever the young Lama character named Rimpoche reminisces of the past events in his life, AR Rahman slowly builds up intense background music that perfectly delves into the horrors that the young Lama could face if he gets caught by the people in the dangerous cult.

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The renowned director Adoor Gopalakrishnan is the first Indian director to use sound as a leitmotif through his film ‘Swayamvaram’ which was released in the year 1972. The film was the directorial debut of Adoor Gopalakrishnan and the sync sound technology was first used in this film. The sound mixing done by P. Devadas and the original score by MB Sreenivasan was a new experience to the audience as it perfectly used natural sounds coupled with a minimalistic background track. ‘Swayamvaram’ featured the actors Madhu and Sharada in pivotal roles.

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The psychological thriller film ‘Irakal’ could be termed as one of the underrated psychological thrillers in Malayalam cinema. The film told the story of a ruthless young man named Baby Mathews who gets involved in several criminal activities and fantasizes about murdering people and gushing blood. The film directed by KG George delves deep into the psychology of violence and uses a slow violent trance-style music track whenever Baby Mathews gets an intuition to kill someone or an aggressive instinct. This film could be termed as the old classic version of the Fahadh Faasil starrer film ‘Joji’.

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When you think of the Mammootty starrer ‘CBI’ series it's the iconic CBI theme that comes to mind. But leitmotif is perfectly used in the areas where Mammootty’s character Sethurama Iyer starts his investigation or gets a vital clue from a crime scene. There is this less intense background theme played at every crucial points in the CBI series, making the audience feel that something important is going to happen next.

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It's not a new fact that the Fazil directorial film ‘Manichitrathazhu’ is truly a masterpiece and there are areas in the film that are still unexplored. Coming to the usage of musical leitmotif in the film, one could hear slow classical music played in the background whenever the actress Shobana’s character starts to encounter the spirit of the vengeful dancer, Nagavalli. The musical leitmotif in this film is beyond terrifying and could send chills down one’s spine whenever this slow classical music is heard in the background.

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