They waited for months till the climate was just right, till there was water flowing down the falls. Even then, there were risks. Sabareesh Prabhaker and his friends walked for two hours through the woods, near a place called Vattakanal in Kodaikkanal. They saw a leopard perched upon a tree. Braving it all, Sabareesh took out his violin, stood on top of the high falls and played Malargale, while his band accompanied him with their keyboard, guitars and drums. A few months later, Sabareesh found a message in his inbox.
The BBC Radio wanted to broadcast the two A.R. Rahman medleys that his band ‘Immortal Raaga’ had recorded on top of the hills in Kodaikanal, and in the beautiful Parunthin Para near Wagamon. Sitting in a café in Kochi, Sabareesh talks of his joy on seeing these videos shared by Mani Ratnam and Santhosh Sivan, the director and the cinematographer of Roja, the film that brought ARR to Tamil cinema. The Malarkale medley has crossed over 1.2 million views. The second medley beginning with Kannathil Muthamittal covers the songs Puthuvellai Mazhai, Netru illatha matram, Thoda Thoda, Swasame. “These are not simply covers, we reproduce them in our style, different tempos and all,” Sabareesh says, scrolling through the videos on his phone.
He pauses towards the end of the video. “That’s where we bring our own composition.” And you notice the fingers of this gifted man moving extraordinarily fast through the frets of his violin, creating magic with his music. “I have somehow been attracted to music from a very young age. Possibly because there has always been music in the family,” says the young man who grew up in a house in Tripunithura watching his grandmother Janaki with a harmonium, taking Carnatic lessons to children.
“Her sister M.S. Malathy was a playback singer and another sister Saraswathy was an actor. Together they were known as the Cherthala sisters. My parents — Chandrasekharan and Vanaja — have also been a huge support.” When he turned nine, Sabareesh picked up a violin and went to a master, Abdul Hazeez. Three years later, he was performing on stages, accompanying artistes, or else doing solo concerts. For three years, he stood first for eastern violin at the state youth festival. Then came college and the winning streak continued. This time, it went on to national level. There was the CCRT scholarship after that. “It is also in college that I began doing fusions, mixing Carnatic with western classical.”
Immortal Raaga was started soon afterward as a jazz and fusion band in Carnatic genre. All the members had met each other during music programmes they went to perform at. When the idea for a band came, Sumesh Anand took up the keyboard, Justine and Jackson picked up their guitars, and Jaffer Haneefa was on the drums. They didn’t need a vocalist. “There are lots of possibilities when it is an instrumental band. You can produce notes in double tempo (16 times faster) the way you cannot with your voice. Instrumental music is always about feelings, more than the meanings the lyrics could bring. You might say if lyrics are for the brain, music is for the heart.”
The band went on to create its own compositions. “But most of the time, we develop these from familiar tunes, like a Hindustani Bandish, so people feel familiar with what we play. They may not accept original compositions too easily from newcomers.” But then the improvisations are so marked they keep receiving heartfelt applauses from audiences that include the likes of S.P. Balasubrahmaniam and K.S. Chitra. “There was this one time I dedicated a piece to Chitra chechi, playing her songs Ninnukori and Uyire, and she sat among the audience and sang along on a mike, without anyone asking her to!”
Sabareesh shows that video that he posted on the renowned singer’s birthday. Sabareesh would name these compositions too. When the band played with chenda exponent Mattannur Sankarankutty, he called it the Kerala Express because all the music was played so fast. Another piece is called God’s Own Country. “Because of Sumesh ettan’s country music on the keyboard and my Indian traditional tunes on the violin.”
They have had musicians and technicians share and appreciate their work from across the world. “One of the cameramen of the Game of Thrones series shared our AR Rahman medley. I am a huge follower of Hollywood and sought the help of my junior from college — Syam — to create visuals like what you see there.” Shyam became the director. They have plans to record more such videos, a Malayalam medley in the night among them.
