Thursday, July 20, 2017
Immanuel Vasanth Dinakaran, better known as D. Imman, is an Indian film composer and singer, predominantly working in the Tamil film industry. His first film as music director was Thamizhan in 2002. Since then he has composed music for more than 70 films.
Imman was born in Chennai, India. He is the son of J. David Kirubakkara Dass, who was a teacher. Imman started playing music at a very early age. His early years were spent in Chennai and he subsequently attended Don Bosco, Egmore, Chennai and later Pachaiyappa's College. He received his Master's degree from the University of Madras.
Married to Monica Richard on 24 April 2008,[6] D. Imman has two daughters, Veronica Dorothy Imman and Blessica Kathy Imman.
Imman began work on music for films aged 15, apprenticing under music composers Mahesh Mahadevan and Adithyan by playing the keyboard. During the period, he also worked on private albums and his work was noticed by television serial producers Kutty Padmini and Prabhu Nepal, who gave him the opportunity to work on the theme song and background music for their drama Krishnadasi, which began running in 2000.[7] He subsequently began to get further work in the television circuit, garnering opportunities to score music for over 5000 episodes in shows including Kolangal, Police Diary and Mandhira Vaasal. Kutty Padmini then gave him the chance to score music and compose songs for his first feature film, Kaadhale Swasam, a romantic film featuring Karthik and Meena. However despite a grand audio launch in November 2001, the film failed to have a theatrical release. Producer Venkateswaran, was impressed with Imman's work in the album, and gave him the opportunity to compose the music for Thamizhan (2002). The album won positive reviews, with the composer also featuring the voices of the lead actors Vijay and Priyanka Chopra for a particular song. However, Imman subsequently went through another difficult period, with several of his films becoming dropped or shelved after production began and he revealed he considered a return to just being a keyboard player.
Despite the success of individual songs such as "Azhagiya Asura" from Whistle (2003), he failed to garner offers for big films. His next successful album was for Sundar C's masala film starring Arjun, Giri (2004), with the song Dai Kaiyaa Vechukittu being well received with the town and rural audiences. The success of the project, prompted several subsequent collaborations where Sundar C was director or where Arjun played the lead actor. Despite receiving relatively high-profile work, Imman remarked that he felt pigeonholed by the work he was getting in the period and was not approached by directors to be a part of realistic cinema ventures.
The positive reviews that his work in Prabhu Solomon's Mynaa (2010) received, coupled with the film's box office success prompted bigger offers for Imman.He has subsequently collaborated with Prabhu Solomon for the rest of his trilogy of romantic films, earning acclaim for his work in Kumki (2012) and Kayal (2014). Similarly he has struck a similar successful combination with director Suseenthiran, winning positive reviews for his work on Pandianadu (2013) and Jeeva (2014). For the first time, he is conducting his own concert in Malaysia.
