Wind melody

Hello I said
Smile, whispered the wind
I smiled
Wind whistled.

This is how Whispers and Whistles, Varkey & Friends’ song cover starring Ahaana Krishna starts. What follows is three soft, melodious tracks seamlessly blended and beautifully shot. “The orchestral backing has this newly developed instrument called Seaboard, which I received at ROLI (the company who developed Seaboard) International Awards as a finalist. Integrating a new instrument into the soundscape a challenge,” says Arun Varghese, the front-man of Varkey & Friends. The orchestration of the cover comprises of beautiful string layers played by Rithu Vysakh. “He is a one-man string orchestra. He plays the part of every single person in the string orchestra and we layered it on top of the other, creating the  massive soundscape,” adds Arun.

Shyamaprakash, who directed the video, says Whispers and Whistles was a concept that sprang up during a midnight chat. “It all started some 8 months back when me, Arun and DOP Nimish got together for a cover song. Since Ahaana was the lead singer we went for songs that best suited her voice,” he says. Arun adds that Varkey & Friends is basically a bunch of friends who make and perform music together. “The most interesting part of the group is the flexible line-up. As I am trained in western classical and film scoring from A R Rahman’s KMMC and Middlesex University, we do music from different cultural backgrounds. My childhood friends Rithu Vysakh (violinist/composer) and Syamaprakash M S (director/actor/lyricist) are the major pillars of the collective,” he says.

Katrin Mozhi, Thulli varum kaatre and Katte nee veesharuthippol are the tracks used for the cover. “These three are classics in their languages with a lot of following. Everyone would love to hear these songs again in a different soundscape, I hoped,” says Arun who adds that the idea of a common theme was there from the very beginning. “Connecting was the key. They were really  different songs, even the tempo, the ragas, everything were different. But the compositional concept made it a coherent piece of music and we are so glad that everyone could connect to it. Ahaana worked extensively on the melodies as she wanted to do her best.” Shyamaprakash agrees that they chose the three particular songs for their theme and mood.

The video was shot in the scenic Bonacaud and the filming was over in a couple of days. “I  wanted to place it in an epic dream-like landscape with lush orchestration evoking the feeling of breeze for the listeners,” says Arun. “The hilly area usually has a very hard sun, but when we shot it was a little cloudy giving us the right, toned-down light in sync with the mood. Since it’s shot in slow motion Ahaana’s challenge was to render the songs a little faster while getting the lip-sync and expressions right,” says Shyamaprakash.

Ahaana, who rendered the song with  Arun Varghese and Rithu Vysakh, says the feedback so far has been tremendous. “For me the most exciting part was singing Katte nee veesharithippol which actually featured my father,” she says.