Path finders

Paadhai is all set to release its third and fourth musical novelettes — Munbe Vaa Anbe Vaa and Appatucker

Shammeer and Siva.

When Chandrakasan, managing head, Paadhai, presents the talk Living The Dream at IIM Bangalore on January 9, the creative group’s dreams and aspirations will come to fruition. After all, Paadhai’s belief is that ‘Few things just exist, they don’t change for years, like the endless path’.

And when Paadhai’s two new musical novelettes are released on January 12, it will mean that Shammeer and Siva’s collaborative efforts are meeting with greater success.

Their first two musical novelettes — a first of its kind in Tamil — have sold over 3,000 copies in two years. And, to top it all, their latest video ‘Facebook Figurala Losanaen’ that they did for their fourth novelette

Appatucker has gone viral, with 3,00,000 hits on YouTube in just three days.

Books with songs

Says Shammeer, creative head and writer, “A musical novelette is something that simulates a movie experience. We have woven songs into the story and make the reader listen to the songs even as he is reading the novel.”

The first two novelettes —

Ranam Sugam and

Neon Nagaram — are accompanied by songs on CDs, which the reader can play during designated portions of the book. Shammeer first thought of this idea while still in college. His schoolmate Siva had similar thoughts, and although they were working in different firms, they came together to form Paadhai.

“ Ranam Sugam (2010) is a story of five college friends and their music band, formed to win a competition judged by A.R. Rahman. The central theme of the book is about love failure — a common denominator in relationships among college students,” says Shammeer.

Paadhai’s second musical novelette Neon Nagaram was released in 2011 by director Cheran, actor Prasanna, and singer Sriram.

“ Neon Nagaram was well received and is now in the process of becoming a movie. Neon Nagaram ’s focus is on music plagiarism, based on our real experiences,” says Shammeer.

Munbe Vaa Anbe Vaa is a kind of sequel to Ranam Sugam and is a love story. The fourth novelette Appatucker is written by another author, Lingam.

“The idea is to encourage new talent and also give variety to our readers,” informs Siva, content head and composer. It is a story about four Visual Communication students who set out to make a short film on temples. Somewhere along the way, they get sidetracked, lose focus and end up making something totally different. Effort is on to publish Neon Nagaram in English by Penguin in March 2013. “It is titled You Stole My Song ; it is not just a translation but an adaptation. And, there will be more music for this version. With these two books, we have done away with the CD format for the songs, and have a link to YouTube,” reveals Shammeer.

While Shammeer’s forte is story telling (and writing), Siva’s strength lies in composing music.

But, jointly, their creativity overlaps and there are occasions when they take on the other’s work.

Looks like with the paadhai (path) they have created, they are journeying into uncharted territories.