One lakh views and counting. Thaikkudam Bridge has done it again. ‘One’, the first song of their debut album, Navarasam, and the video of the song have gone viral on the net. And more music is on the way as Thaikkudam Bridge gears up for the launch of Navarasam later this month.
The band has had a meteoric rise since its launch over two years ago. They have been working on the album for quite some time. A packed itinerary forced them to postpone it’s launch. “However, we took a break of over a month in April this year. After all it is the dream of any independent band to come out with their original tracks,” says lead guitarist Mithun Raju.
The album has an eclectic mix of themes and genres. “The USP of Thaikkudam has been that it has a blend of different musical styles and genres. So when we thought about Navarasam , we wanted that diversity in our songs as well. We selected varied subjects and styles and have come up with a multi-lingual album with songs in Malayalam, Hindi and Tamil. Each number stands on its own,” states Govind Menon, frontman of the band.
Adds Mithun: “It is a trend to have romance as the theme in music albums. But we wanted to experiment. That’s why our songs sing about equality, politics and history in Navarasam .”
The collection
Navarasam has nine songs. The album takes the title from a number ‘Navarasam’ that is dedicated to Kathakali. It takes a dig at the commercialisation of the grand classical art form and exhorts its practitioners to revive the art form. A classical rock number, it is sung by Vipin Lal and written by Dhanya Suresh, Govind’s sister, in Manipravalam, which is often used in padams.
She has also written the heavy, hard hitting ‘Aarachar’ (hangman), sung by Govind, which points a finger at the grey world of Indian politics. Another Malayalam track is ‘Urumbu’ (ants), an acoustic folk number sung by Christin Jose that draws similarities between man and ants and how both toil hard to please their bosses. Bharatiyar’s poem ‘Vidhuthalai’, a resonating call for freedom, has been evocatively rendered by Anish Krishnan.
The two Hindi songs in the album are ‘Sultan’ and ‘Khwab’. ‘Sultan’, written by Piyush Kapoor, a former member of the band, looks at the “untold bad stories of the Mughal empire. We have studied about the glory of the period, but this song recalls the dark and murky side of their rule,” Mithun says. Anish Krishnan croons the number. ‘Khwab’, penned by Gajanan Mitke and performed by Krishna Bongane and Nila Madhav Mohapatra, is about aspirations and dreams. ‘Chathe’, a track that was earlier released by the band has been included in the album. ‘Jai Hanuman’ is a pure, progressive rock track in the album.
The album will have a launch in Kochi this month and later in Dubai. Meanwhile studio versions of all the nine tracks will be launched, along with videos of some tracks. It is learnt that established filmmakers will direct the videos.
Watch this space!
Huge hit
‘One’, sung in a rustic cadence by Siddharth Menon, is a rocking paean to harmony; a number that celebrates the soul and soil of Kerala and her people. Images of expressions, emotions, moments, places and people coalesce in a five-minute video that has been directed and edited by Littil Swayamp.
“When I heard the song, I made a list of things that are synonymous with Kerala and set out on a 25-day journey from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram. Then it was Onam and we got frames of pulikali, boat race, tug of war and the celebratory mood. Everything is real, nothing has been staged, neither the emotions nor the expressions,” says Littil.
