I have never enjoyed the music of other music directors of recent times as much as MM Kreem.
The kind of life that he gives to his work remains unparalleled amongst his peers.
Be it any genre and he gives you songs that justify the theme of the movie…

But where is he these days?

To understand his body of work lets just have a quick look on his filmography:

• Lahore (2009)
• Dhokha (2007)
• Chandrahas (2007)
• Vishwa (2006)
• Paheli (2005)
• Rog (2005)
• Saaya (2003)
• Jism (2003)
• Sur: The Melody of Life (2002)
• Main Tere Pyaar Mein Pagal (1999)
• Zakhm (1998)
• Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin (1996)
• Miya Biwi Aur Saali (1996)
• Criminal (1995)
• Mera Pyara Bharat (1994)
• Azhakan (1991) (Under the name of Maragathamani)
• Neelagiri (1991) (Under the name of Maragathamani)

M. M. Kreem alias Maragadamani alias M. M. Keera Vaani (also spelt M. M. Keeravani) is a film composer in India. He is also a singer. He is the cousin of Tollywood director S.S. Rajamouli. His youngest brother Kalyani Malik (a music composer), S.S.Kanchi (Actor-Amrutham, Telugu serial Fame) are all dedicated to the film industry. Keeravani is known for his own footprint in telugu film industry.
The fact that this musician has so many names in the industry still remains a mystery or probably it was a calculated move.

Henceforth, we will refer to him in the post as MM Kreem.

During his initial years, MM Kreem worked as a freelance violinist, as well as an assistant to the late composer Chakravarthi, who has scored music for more than 1000 films. P. Ramoji Rao gave him a break in his film Manasu Mamata in 1990. His third Telugu film, Seetharamayyagari Manavarulu was the real breakthrough film. Since then he has done more than 180 films, including 10 films each in Kannada and Tamil, and five films in Malayalam. He has won the National Award for Best Music for Annamayya, and the Tamil Nadu State award for K. Balachander’s Azaghan. Most of Kreem’s Tamil films have been with K. Balachander and most of his hindi films have been with Mahesh Bhatt.

MM Kreem’s major success came with Criminal which had everyone humming “Tu mile dil khile” followed by “Chup tum raho, chupp hum rahen” from Iss raat ki subah nahin.

Most of his works have been for the Bhatt camp. I guess MM Kreem has been at his best while delivering songs to the Bhatts. This also proves the fact the Bhatts have a taste for music. Be it the tearful melodies of Zakhm, the eerie sounds of Jism, the mysterious Rog. His last best work was Paheli which had lots of Rajashtan folk influences and with Gulzar saab penning the lyrics, the songs obviously took a larger life form.

I guess MM Kreem understands the movie theme way too well to conceive music for them:

• Zakhm had lots of pain and pathos
• Jism had a certain eeriness to the tunes
• Rog was highly mysterious
• Sur was complete melody
• Paheli was full with Rajasthani folk tunes
• Azhagan (Tamil film) was melody personified and remains his best work till date

I am really amazed at the fact that inspite of giving such awesome music to his films, MM Kreem still maintains a very low profile and thus churning out less movies in Hindi/ Tamil.

I understand that he is busy doing music for Tollywood. But what about fans in Kollywood and Bollywood? The last good songs we heard from him was Paheli. Talking about Paheli, I wonder how SRK got him to do music for this film. It was amazing no doubt, but it is not typical of SRK to give jobs like these to MM Kreem who is not in his circle of friends like Anu Malik. Whatever it is, it was amazing to listen to his songs in this film.

I wish this guy does enough PR for himself so he can do atleast some more movies every year.

There are very few music directors who come out with such wonderful compositions like him. Of course there are commercial pot boilers but how many of them do we still like to listen today. Listen to “Jadu hai nasha hai-Jism”, “Chup tum raho-Iss raat ki…”, “Aa bhi jaa-Sur”, “Minnat kare-Paheli, Khali hai-Paheli”, “Sangeetha swarangal-Azhagan” and the list goes on… and you will know what I am talking about.

When you are listening to MM Kreem’s music you will not find any jarring music.
Just plain melody. All you can hear in his songs are the singer’s voices that keep echoing into your heart and your mind.

Fine, but where is MM Kreem these days?

AR Rahman has and will always be my all time favorite Music composer and he’s in an altogether different league so I would not count him here