2018 is the soundtrack to the 2023 Malayalam-language survival drama film of the same name directed by Jude Anthany Joseph. The film is scored by Nobin Paul in his Malayalam debut, and featured four songs composed by Nobin, with one song "Minnal Minnane" was composed by William Francis. Joe Paul wrote lyrics for the songs. The soundtrack to the film was released by Think Music on 10 May 2023, five days after the film's release.[1] The track "Minnal Minnane" was released as a single on 4 May.[2]
| 2018 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Soundtrack album by Nobin Paul and William Francis | ||||
| Released | 10 May 2023 | |||
| Recorded | 2023 | |||
| Genre | Feature film soundtrack | |||
| Length | 11:31 | |||
| Language | Malayalam | |||
| Label | Think Music | |||
| Producer |
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| Nobin Paul chronology | ||||
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| William Francis chronology | ||||
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Development
editAfter watching 777 Charlie, Joseph appreciated Nobin Paul for his work in the film and shared his intentions on a possible collaboration. When Nobin met him at the production of the film in Vaikom during May 2022, he thought of discussing on a collaboration in another film, but he was told to score music for this film. In November 2022, he was brought onboard as the film's composer.[3] In order to be available for scoring the film, Paul had rejected five films from Kannada that came post the success of 777 Charlie.[4]
Nobin felt that composing a disaster film had "immense scope" for a musician mostly through the background score as it elevates the drama and emotions onscreen. He overlayed the film's background score with the sounds of rain and thunder associated with it and did not want the music to be too low or loud and has to convey the drama onscreen. He described it as challenging but felt that the end result was "phenomenal" insisting the audience to watch it on theatres equipped with Dolby Atmos. Unlike 777 Charlie which had 10 songs, Paul had composed three numbers due to its limited scope and two of them were performed by his daughter Ezra. One song for the film was composed by William Francis.[5]
While composing for the introductory sea sequence, sound designer Vishnu Govind assisted Nobin by sending the sound while the background music being composed so that it could be heard with the voice. And for the climax sequence, the helicopter uses a mix of sound and music during the rescue mission and was emphasized until the climatic moments.[4]
The music was recorded during January 2023 and was completed within three months, which Nobin felt as the fastest ever he had worked; he composed 777 Charlie over five years. Nobin said "Since I had not worked on a subject like this before, it took me a couple of days to get into the zone, but once that happened, I was churning out stuff at break-neck speed."[5] Nobin primarily used orchestral music for the film that was recorded live in Thiruvananthapuram and Bangalore. Initially, Nobin wanted to recruit international musicians to work on the film but due to the insufficient time he had while composing, he worked on with local musicians for scoring the film. Some of the instrumentalists had also worked with Nobin on his previous film 777 Charlie.[6]
Track listing
editAll lyrics are written by Joe Paul
| No. | Title | Music | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Minnal Minnane" | William Francis | Shankar Mahadevan | 1:57 |
| 2. | "Venmegham" | Nobin Paul | K. S. Harisankar | 3:15 |
| 3. | "Innithile" | Nobin Paul | Ezma Nobin, Madhuri Seshadri | 3:21 |
| 4. | "Uyirayi Maarave" | Nobin Paul | K. S. Harisankar | 1:19 |
| 5. | "Save Me" | Nobin Paul | Kashyap Rammohan, Ezra Nobin, Shubhangini | 1:38 |
| Total length: | 11:31 | |||
Reception
editAllan Hunter of Screen International called it as a "stirring, bombastic score".[7] Gopika Is of The Times of India and Nishad Thaivalappil of News18 praised the music being "well-suited and not too jarring" and "enhances the narrative and evoke a range of emotions".[8][9] Anandu Suresh of The Indian Express stated that Nobin's music creates "a fantastic atmosphere that will evoke feelings of déjà vu".[10]
Princy Alexander of Onmanorama said that Nobin's music "also does justice to the movie".[11] Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost was more critical of the music as she felt it being "overused to evoke melodrama and highlight emotion, and played at an excessive volume, when the film could have rested primarily on the shoulders of a sound designer effectively capturing the rain, the wind and all the other sounds of nature that you would expect in such a scenario."[12]
References
edit- ^ "2018 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)". Spotify. 10 May 2023. Archived from the original on 27 September 2023. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
- ^ "ഇത് പ്രതീക്ഷ, ആകാംക്ഷ, പിന്നെ ഓർമപ്പെടുത്തലും; 2018 ലെ പാട്ട് വൈറൽ". ManoramaOnline (in Malayalam). Archived from the original on 11 October 2023. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
- ^ "Nobin Paul to compose for Malayalam film on Kerala floods". The Times of India. 9 November 2022. ISSN 0971-8257. Archived from the original on 24 May 2023. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
- ^ a b "'കടൽ രംഗം പശ്ചാത്തലസംഗീതത്തോടെ കണ്ടുകഴിഞ്ഞതും ജൂഡ് കെട്ടിപ്പിടിച്ച് ഒരുമ്മ തന്നു'". Mathrubhumi (in Malayalam). 19 May 2023. Archived from the original on 7 September 2023. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
- ^ a b "Exclusive! Composer Nobin Paul: 2018 is not a tale of destruction, but of human resilience, best experienced in a movie hall". OTTPlay. Archived from the original on 6 May 2023. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
- ^ "'പ്രേക്ഷകർ കരഞ്ഞപ്പോൾ ഞാൻ ചിരിച്ചു, ജൂഡ് ആവശ്യപ്പെട്ടത് ചെയ്തു കൊടുക്കുകയായിരുന്നു'; 2018ന്റെ സംഗീതസംവിധായകൻ പറയുന്നു". Manorama Online (in Malayalam). 15 May 2023. Archived from the original on 15 May 2023. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
- ^ Hunter, Allan (7 December 2023). "'2018': Review". Screen. Archived from the original on 11 December 2023. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
- ^ "2018 Movie Review : A thoughtfully crafted movie that tells the story of Kerala's biggest tragedy and its heroes". The Times of India. ISSN 0971-8257. Archived from the original on 20 May 2023. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
- ^ "2018 Review: The Real Kerala Story That Brings to Life The Nightmare People Went Through". News18. 27 May 2023. Archived from the original on 17 December 2023. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
- ^ Suresh, Anandu (5 May 2023). "2018 movie review: The Kerala story fanatics and their bot squads don't want you to know". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 14 May 2023. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
- ^ Alexander, Princy (5 May 2023). "'2018' is a well-made film that recreates one of Kerala's worst moments in recent memory". OnManorama. Archived from the original on 20 May 2023. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
- ^ M. M. Vetticad, Anna (6 May 2023). "2018 movie review: Hollywood-style disaster flick swings between moving moments and predictability". Firstpost. Archived from the original on 18 May 2023. Retrieved 20 May 2023.