O Pardesi by Ankit Menon, Sooraj Santhosh

When Ankit Menon, Sooraj Santhosh recorded O Pardesi, something special happened in the studio — and listeners have felt it ever since. The arrangement here is the work of Ankit Menon, and it shows genuine craft in how it builds and releases.

There are singers who perform songs and singers who live inside them. On O Pardesi, Ankit Menon, Sooraj Santhosh clearly belongs in the second group. The story told by Dileep, Veena Nandakumar in Voice Of Sathyanathan finds its musical expression here — O Pardesi is where the film's heart beats loudest.

In 2023, Malayalam produced many songs, but O Pardesi was one of the handful that genuinely cut through. Some music is background. O Pardesi demands attention — not aggressively, but in the way a good conversation does.

The concision of O Pardesi — just 3:21 — is part of what makes it work. There is nothing here that should not be. The track stands as evidence that Ankit Menon, Sooraj Santhosh and Ankit Menon, working together, are capable of something well above the ordinary.