“It is a soft melody but with some telling visuals of how Madurai has metamorphosed over the years,” says Sanil Joseph, the singer of the five-minute song Madurakkaren . This is the second song recorded by him for the album, “Madura – A musical discovery of Madurai” that was released in the winter of 2015 with the song “Enga Madura”.
While the first song was fast and fun number with peppy beats and could be danced to, this one is more gentle and soulful. The sense of soul comes from the vocals by Sanil, the gifted singer that he is while working as health management consultant at Aravind Eye Hospital. Josiah Immanuel brings a soulful touch to the melodica and guitar strings while Philip Devadoss soulfully captures vignettes of Madurai, as it is today. Both are students of The American College.
The concept, lyrics and music make a song most richly rewarding and this time too Tamil professor at The American College, R.Prabahar, has hemmed it all beautifully into something far more expressive. The idea for Madurakkaren took birth following the homecoming of his college friend from USA after 15 years.“When old friends meet,” says Prabaharan, “they relive the good olden days.” “As we revisited many of our old haunts, our conversations were like ‘remember when’ and ‘that was there’. He reminisced more and it struck me hard that familiarity with the place had blinded me to the changes,” he adds.
He penned the angst of an NRI friend to narrate how much the city had changed – particularly with the disappearance of the river, tanks, ponds, fields and hillocks. The quaint self-contradictions of the city through music are interspersed with dialogues based on facts. Like he talks of Madurai as the land of the brave and yet nobody fought to protect the paddy fields and the water bodies that once symbolised the city.
The song covers four important landmarks – the Police Commissioner’s office, the All India Radio, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court and the new Tamil Sangam building – all of which have been built on water bodies to drive home the point that wisdom is required to save and keep the city’s glory. The augmented harmonies and the neat assemblages in the musical video make the city musically relevant. In three days, it has got 10,000 plus views and the feedback the team is receiving is all about sentiments.
“People are telling us that they are able to relate to this so well because it echoes everybody’s concerns,” says Sanil. Why did they take so long to come out with it? “All of us our into different jobs and busy but we never lost track of our primary project to unravel the city through its rich heritage, vibrant colours, its people and their multifarious moods, the different festivals and the hidden stories,” adds Sanil.
The team is ready with the audio-track of the third song too for the album which will finally consist of at least half-a-dozen songs. The video shoot remains to be done for the song which is an ode to artist Manohar Devadoss and his connect to the temple town with his brilliant sketches.
As of now, the second song Madurakkaren has won a special place in hearts of those who love their Madurai, as it was. Only that everybody was waiting for it to be told.
