Kamukippattu by Sooraj Santhosh, Haritha Balakrishnan

There is an honesty to Kamukippattu that separates it from most Malayalam songs released around the same time. Credit goes to Sreenath Sivasankaran for a score that understands exactly what the song needs and nothing more.

Sooraj Santhosh, Haritha Balakrishnan's vocal here has a quality that is difficult to describe but impossible to miss — it simply feels true. The story told by Vishnu Unnikrishnan, Sneha Paliyeri in Sabaash Chandra Bose finds its musical expression here — Kamukippattu is where the film's heart beats loudest.

Released in 2022, it arrived at a time when Malayalam music needed exactly this kind of sincerity. There is a quality to Kamukippattu that makes it feel like company — the kind of song you put on when words feel insufficient.

Running to 4:45, the song is exactly as long as it needs to be, which is the hardest length for a songwriter to find. Kamukippattu is a reminder that the best music does not need to announce itself. It only needs to be heard.