Composer M Jayachandran embarks on a project on Swathi Thirunal’s ‘padams’ in Manipravalam

As the musical legacy of Swathi Thirunal continues to be celebrated, composer-singer M Jayachandran has taken up an ambitious project — ‘Swathi’s Manipravalam’, an 18-song series on the king-composer’s padams (love poems) in Manipravalam, a literary language combining Malayalam and Sanskrit.

The first song in the series, ‘Kulirmathi vadane’, sung by Carnatic musicians Ranjani and Gayatri (RaGa) has been released. “It is the culmination of a dream. In the early 90s, before I started working in films, one of my uncles gave me a book by Chidambara Vadhyar with Swathi’s compositions. Brought out in 1916, it had padams, thillanas, kirtans, utsavaprabhandham etc written by Swathi Thirunal. I loved the padams, many of which we have never heard of. Of the lot, I loved ‘Kulirmathi vadane’ and wished I could tune it someday,” says Jayachandran.

As fate would have it, Chennai-based musician-turned-businessman, SR Gopakumar, approached him with the same idea four years ago. “Gopan has been like my younger brother. His idea was to bring out 18 padams and he was ready to produce the project. When I agreed to do one, to know how it goes, the padam he chose was ‘Kulirmathi vadane’ much to my surprise. It was as if the song has been chasing me all these years, waiting for me to become a better musician,” says Jayachandran, a multiple State film award-winning composer. A padam is usually about longing for an absent beloved, with poetic metaphors about the lover’s beauty.

Gopakumar first learned about padams while learning music from veteran K Omanakutty in Thiruvananthapuram. “She was doing her research on Kathakali padams at that time. Whenever I visited her home, I would hear these compositions and I loved their musicality and use of Manipravalam. When I moved from Thiruvananthapuram to Chennai, I was appalled that few artistes were singing Swathi’s compositions. That is when I decided to work on popularising his works,” Gopakumar recalls.

Once he found himself in a position to bring out such a project, he approached Jayachandran. “I felt that a composer of his calibre was needed to execute what I had in mind. He was extremely busy and I was not sure if he would take it up. But when sat down to discuss it we were surprised that we shared the same dream,” Gopakumar says.

Jayachandran took time to arrive at the composition. “We only knew that it was in Dhanyasi raga and Misra Chapu tala. I did a lot of research and listened to compositions in the raga. Since ragas evolve over the years, I composed it in a style that would have been current in Swathi’s period,” Jayachandran says.

M Jayachandran with Ranjani-Gayatri duo while recording the song
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The composer says that the Ranjani-Gayatri duo was his first choice for the rendition. “I have been a huge fan of their singing. Since the erstwhile kingdom of Travancore was close to Tamil Nadu, the language and culture had the region’s influence. I wanted that Tamil influence in the rendition as well and that was another reason to choose them,” Jayachandran says.

The initial plan was to use only traditional instruments such as flute, veena and mridangam. He brought in stalwarts such as Rajhesh Vaidhya (veena),  Balasai (flute) and Ganapathy (mridangam). “But after finishing recording, I felt that something was amiss. Then I decided to add harmony to it and brought in the Chennai Strings Orchestra. Placing harmony in a traditional, complex raga like Dhanyasi is a rare attempt in the Indian music scene,” he says.

Gopakumar mentions that he wanted it to be an acoustic experience and Jayachandran kept that in mind. “Our visions and objectives were similar. The artistes gave their all to refine the composition as it was not another commercial venture for them.”

Reflecting on the work, Ranjani and Gayatri observe that they had faith in Jayachandran. “We respect him for the profound and authentic way he has understood and learnt Carnatic music. He has also blazed a trail in the world of film music by creating so many popular compositions,” says Gayatri. Ranjani adds, “It was his vision to blend traditional instruments with the strings. The way he has handled the instruments has heightened the emotive landscape of the composition.There is a perfect amalgamation of orchestration, traditional accompaniment and classical vocals. It is perhaps the first time that a Carnatic composition or padam is being presented like this.”

The duo adds that the recording session was not easy. “He is a perfectionist. Everything had to be just the way he wanted – pronunciation, sangathis, melody, laya… Bringing spontaneity and perfection into a studio is difficult. But the magic was created because he knew what he wanted and he got it from us,” says Gayatri.

(From left) Rajesh Kadamba, M Jayachandran and SR Gopakumar
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Rajesh Kadamba, the director of the video, says that the project was originally conceived as a work of fiction. “But that was not viable because of the busy schedule of the artistes. Whatever you see in the video are shots we took at the time of recording and some have been shot by setting Chroma Green mats. It was important that the visuals do not overpower the music. We also had to create a feel of the period in which Swathi lived. That was done through photographs of Tholpavakoothu in the background,” Rajesh explains. Shot by Vipin Chandran, the video also features classical dancer Sumasandhya.

“The experimentation makes me happy and contented as a composer. It is like a cultural revival of a musical legacy,” says Jayachandran, who completes three decades as a composer.

‘Swathi’s Manipravalam’ is streaming on YouTube.