Faizal's songs are the mainstay of mappilapattu and oppana

A DEEPLY ruminating mind, reclusive yet sensitive, is what strikes when one speaks to Faizal Kanmanam.

- APARNA NAIR

A DEEPLY ruminating mind, reclusive yet sensitive, is what strikes when one speaks to Faizal Kanmanam. His is a story full of music, not one that is taught and chiselled from technique, but one that is handed over by life around, by an upbringing of lullabies and songs of elders for kids, of traditions that become either lifeless or lifelines as time moves on.

Faizal grew from being a poet and a lover of songs and poetry to a stalwart with the pen, whose songs have been dominating the mappilapattu, oppana, kolkali sections of the Kalolsavam arena for over decades. This year, too, his songs are in the fray.