Few would have imagined the classic vocal duel ‘Padakaali’ from the Malayalam film Yoddha without its key element — the vocals. But, that is just what the band Orfeo did. Twenty five years after A.R. Rahman composed that song, the band from Kerala has released an instrumental reworking of it, without losing a bit of its energy. The video has gone viral now, garnering one lakh views in a day.
What has worked for the song is the unlikely re-imagining of the original track, with two violins, cello, viola, piano, and percussion. It also carries the same shock value as when the Finnish cello quartet ‘Apocalyptica’ began playing songs of ‘Metallica’.
“We had quite a big list of songs to start off. While returning after a programme in Bengaluru, we were discussing on how crowds always have a particular liking to songs where there is an element of competition between the performers. This is how we hit upon the idea of working on ‘Padakali’. But it is a song that does not fit easily into the orchestral mode. It is more of percussion and the vocals. The string arrangement was done by veteran violinist Rex Isaac,” says Robin Thomas, the pianist and one of the founders of the band.
Rex Isaac wrote the notations separately for each of the instruments, which the band worked on and improvised.
This is a song that brings out the talent of each of the members of the band.
We have worked on four more songs, which we plan to release soon,” says Benhar Thomas, the drummer.
The band began its journey more than a decade-and-a-half ago, when Robin Thomas and violinst Carol George got together in college to play a few classics.
Reunion
After a long gap, they reunited two years ago with more members — violinist Francis Xavier, viola player Heralnd Antony, Benhar, percussionist Binoy Joseph, and cello player Maria Grigoreva from Russia. Most of them are session artistes in films and three are part of A.R. Rahman’s concert tours. “When we reunited, we played the re-arranged version of Michael Jackson’s ‘Smooth Criminal’ and Rahman’s song ‘Veerapandi Kottayile’, which was much appreciated,” says Robin.
