Navarasa through Kathakali

KOCHI: ‘Navarasa’ a song by playback singer T S Ayyappan recently released on YouTube Channel — has been gaining popularity. The song is accompanied by a video, which uses Kathakali to elevate the meaning of the lyrics.

The music video, released about two weeks ago, has already hit over a million views.  Ayyappan, a disciple of Carnatic vocalist and playback singer P Unnikrishnan, is behind the music, vocals and concept of the song. Ayyappan’s notable songs as a playback singer include Uthama Villain  and Pulimurugan (Tamil). 

“Jayadevan Balakrishnan penned powerful lyrics, depicting each emotion. He is working as the chief of the quality department of a renowned firm in Hyderabad. He made his debut as a lyricist with this project. It was his dream of 35 years,” says Ayyappan. 

 Set in the backdrop of a scenic spot in Thodupuzha, the nine emotions have been beautifully portrayed through Kathakali veshams performed by famous artist Kalamandalam Aravind. “This music video is one among the Navarasa series. Ten songs are planned in the series. They will be released over the next five years,” he says. 

The starting emotion is ‘sringaram’ (romance), portraying the romantic gesture of Lord Krishna. Then comes ‘bhayam’ (fear) depicted through a tornado. Other emotions are roudram  (fury), shantham (peace), veeram (valour), bhibhatsam (disgust), dukham (sadness), adbhutham (wonder) and hasyam (humour).

Ayyappan, who is also a Carnatic musician, says, “All the emotions  or rasas in the song have been linked to nature. The lyrics of the song were written down first, a practice usually followed by earlier songwriters. The music video ends with nature itself with an ecstatic moment of one witnessing nature’s unparallel beauty.” 

The singer is currently working on an independent Bollywood project, ‘NILA’, which 
focuses on eye donation. And his next Navarasa song will be based on Lord Ganesha.