The conduct of musician Ramesh Narayan at the venue of a trailer release in Kochi, during which he appeared to shun actor Asif Ali, is receiving a lot of criticism. A musician known for his Hindustani-influenced compositions, Ramesh was there to take part in the trailer launch of Manoradhangal, an anthology of films made from stories of legendary writer MT Vasudevan Nair. Everyone who was part of the film, including Ramesh and Asif, was being honoured at the event with a memento. However, when Ramesh’s turn came and Asif was invited to hand him a memento, the musician did not acknowledge or even so much as look at the actor, preferring to call upon director Jayaraj so he could receive the honour from him.
Manoradhangal, which has an ensemble of stars including Mammootty, Mohanlal, Asif Ali, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Biju Menon, Fahadh Faasil, Indrajith Sukumaran and others, is expected to release on August 15. The trailer launch was held on July 15, on the occasion of MT’s 91st birthday, and was attended by a number of actors and technicians who worked in the film. Introduced by veteran Tamil actor Kamal Haasan, the trailer gives glimpses of the various films of different genres and time periods. The segments are directed by Priyadarshan, Ranjith, Aswathy (MT's daughter), Shyamaprasad, Mahesh Narayanan, Santosh Sivan, Jayaraj, and Rathish Ambat.
Ramesh Narayan, who composed music for one of the segments in the anthology, directed by Jayaraj, was invited to collect his memento from Asif. In a video that is being widely shared, Asif is seen going to the front of the venue to get the memento and offer it to Ramesh Narayan with a smile. While taking the memento from Asif, Ramesh Narayan appears to not notice him as he turns to the audience and calls Jayaraj, puts the memento in the director’s hand and then receives it all over again from him. Asif quietly returns to his seat.
After the musician’s behaviour invited criticism about the way in which he appeared insulting towards Asif Ali, he came out with an explanation that it was a misunderstanding. In an interview to The Fourth, he said that he was at first not invited on stage and had felt bad about it. It was after he told this to Aswathy, MT’s daughter, that he was invited for his memento. They had at first wrongly announced his name as Santhosh Narayanan (who happens to be another renowned musician in Tamil), he said, and in that confusion, he had not paid attention to Asif, but did not mean to insult him.