Jassie Gift

Gift was born in Thiruvananthapuram to parents Gift Israel and Rajamma.[1] He was interested in music from childhood and was highly influenced by western music. He admired Ilayaraja and was a fan of Freddie Mercury. He had lessons in western piano from a young age and started singing and playing the keyboard in local bands. He is a singer and keyboard player of the band Moby Dick.

He entered the film music industry under the guidance of director Jayaraj. Before entering films he composed songs for a couple of albums in Malayalam, including the hit album Soona Soona, and also composed jingles. He pioneered the use of reggae fusion music in the Malayalam music industry with the backing roots of Indian ragas. Gift's first film composition was for the movie Saphalam. His songs written for the movie 4 The People became hits in Kerala, especially "Lajjavathiye",[2] and his music contributed to the success of the film, which became 2004's biggest Malayalam film.[2] The film was later remade in Tamil, and also as Malliswarive in Telugu[4] The song was successful in all languages.[5]

Gift mixed Indian and western music on the album, Rain, Rain Come again,[5] as well as the music for the Kannada film Hudugaata, and the songs "Eno Onthara", "Mandakiniye" and "Ommomme Heegu". He has worked with many South Indian musicians such as Harris Jayaraj, Devisri Prasad, Yuvan Shankar Raja, and M M Keeravani, and Anirudh Ravichander, and collaborated with many music directors from south India. He composed songs for the movie Sanju Weds Githa, sung by Shreya Ghoshal and Sonu Nigam.

Jassie Gift has a master's degree in Philosophy from University College, Trivandrum, and a PhD in Philosophy from Kannur University on the topic of "The Philosophy of Harmony and Bliss with Reference to Advaita and Buddhism".

On 12 September 2012, Jassie married Dr Athulya, who accomplished a PhD in Information Technology/Physics from Kannur University.

• Jassie Gift at IMDb
• Hits of Jassi Gift