An enrapturing prelude on the violin, which is nearly made to sound like the people Pullavan Vina performed throughout Sarpam Pattu – the ritual dance carried out in temples by the ladies of the Pulluvar group through the serpent worship ceremony in Kerala – opens Navarasam – the track from the eponymous debut album of Kochi-based band Thaikuddam Bridge. Performed by founder and frontman Govind Vasantha, the magnificent piece is adopted by heavy guitars, large reverb, Vipin Lal’s light voice, and the rock frenzy that’s constructed alongside. The sound swells as if an unlimited orchestra is pumping it up, discovering a state of reverie alongside some tender vocals. It’s a superb sonic extravaganza that hits the spot.
The band discovered a lot consideration for the track, which additionally made it to the credit of Manoj Bajpayee and Samantha Ruth Prabhu-starrer, The Household Man. However what Vasantha and the band didn’t anticipate was that they’ll discover components of this 2015 piece in Rishabh Shetty-starrer Kannada movie, Kantara – set within the nineteenth century, a few demi-god named Bhoota who will get the native king to present a few of his forestlands to the tribals, which years later are claimed again by the king’s successor. The track Varaha Rupam in Kantara opens with the same prelude, solely that it’s performed on a nadhaswaram. Vasantha informed The Indian Categorical, “I came upon in regards to the track when folks started to message and congratulate the band for being featured in Kantara. That had me take heed to the track they created and I figured that this was past being influenced.”
Vasantha, who’s sad with the copyright infringement, has already put collectively a authorized crew to proceed with a swimsuit towards the filmmaker, producers, and inventive crew of Kantara. “There’s a course of to those issues. They might have really requested us to make use of the track and we’d have tweaked it for them. It will have been good on the filmmakers’ half to make use of an unbiased band of their movie,” says Vasantha, who’s now a well known composer within the Tamil and Malayalam music trade and a sought-after identify recognized for his signature mix of classical and up to date sound.
In keeping with Vian Fernandes, the bassist of the band, if the track was solely impressed, they’d let it go. “At instances, we love sure flavours and we attempt to get them in our conversations. However taking off a observe and including every factor, together with the orchestration, and never even crediting the artistes is a unique ballgame altogether,” says Fernandes.
Publish the controversy on social media and earlier than the band determined to take the authorized route, Ajneesh Loknath, the composer of Kantara referred to as Vasantha and was upset in regards to the controversy. “He didn’t settle for the plagiarism half, in fact. I additionally make music for motion pictures and I consider there are very completely different pressures in that world. So I can’t blame solely Ajneesh for this. What I’m certain of is that the artistic folks concerned or the author and producers have used Navarasam because the reference for his or her track. In my expertise, plenty of filmmakers let you know that they need a sound like a track they’ve already heard. However normally one creates one thing in the identical power and vibe. Ajneesh was very well mannered and I consoled him, however the issue exists,” says Vasantha.
Whereas the multi-lingual and much-appreciated piece is steeped in layers of meanings, at a primary degree it alludes to the thought of the performing arts which have been as soon as discovered on the ft of a guru and the way they’re more and more turning into ‘a monstrous ghost of their former self” moreover a showcase of the navarasas – the 9 moods described in Natyashastra and ones that the world of Indian performing arts (music, dance and theatre) is predicated upon. However this track can also be the story of caste prejudice so deep-rooted in the identical world. To articulate the thought, the band took navarasas and displayed them by means of Kathakali – considered one of India’s most recognisable dance types from India that mixes dance, storytelling, and mythology, which has had a dying fall for just a few years. It is usually the artform that the track’s founder Govind Vasantha (earlier Menon) grew up watching his elder brother carry out after spending hours on the flowery make-up, costumes, and the rice-paper masks on the face. “Watching my brother study and dance Kathakali again house in Irinjalakuda (Thrissur) had a big impact on me,” says Vasantha, who dropped Menon from his identify just a few years in the past to not be recognized by a specific caste and to honour his mom Vasanthakumari.
The story of the track, as proven within the music video, is a few younger boy studying Kathakali from his mother and father, being bullied at school by the ‘upper-caste boys’ and finally discovering leaping right into a effectively to keep away from getting beateb up. “This piece has many layers and I depart it to folks to interpret,” says Vasantha. Whereas it’s the story of the humanities, their magnificence, and decline, it’s additionally a narrative of these from decrease castes eager to follow the “excessive arts”. The story in all probability comes from the marginalised group of the Ezhavas, lots of whom took up Kathakali. The video of Kantara makes use of the imagery of Gaarudi Gombe, which, like Kathakali, includes heavy costumes and face paint.
Thaikuddam Bridge got here to consideration in 2014 once they had the digital world in a tizzy with its wild musical mishmash. What made them stand out again then was their small however attention-grabbing oeuvre of songs marked by versatility. As for the band’s distinctive moniker, it was simply one thing they got here up with. “All of the hunky, funky, lean, imply, fats, brat members of the band acquired themselves jam-packed in a room close to Thaikkudam Bridge in Kochi,” Vasantha had stated as soon as. All the music was their very own.