Navarasa (soundtrack)

List of the composers working for their respective short films:[5]

The original soundtrack and score of Navarasa is composed by A. R. Rahman, Santhosh Narayanan, Sundaramurthy KS, Rajesh Murugesan, Karthik, Ron Ethan Yohann, Govind Vasantha and Justin Prabhakaran.[6] Initially D. Imman, Ghibran and Aruldev, were signed in for the project, but since the directors of the respective anthologies left the project, Santhosh, Sundaramurthy and Rajesh took over the project. Vishal Bhardwaj made his debut in Tamil, composing for the segment Inmai directed by Rathindran R. Prasad.[7][8]

As the series is based on the Indian concept or Navarasas (Indian aesthetics), each segment directed by five directors represent a different emotion or rasa such as anger, compassion, courage, disgust, fear, laughter, love, peace and wonder.[5] The songs in the anthology segments scored by varied music directors also represent a different emotion. The music directors, along with the film artists, directors and other technicians, worked on the series without receiving any remuneration.[9]

Though multiple composers were being a part of the anthology, only nine songs were composed for the series.[10] The episode Guitar Kambi Mele Nindru, featured five to seven songs scored by Karthik accompanied within the duration of 35–40 minutes.[11] The tracks "Thooriga" is inspired from the song "Ninnukori Varnam" from Agni Natchathiram, composed by Ilaiyaraaja,[12] and the first bit prelude of "Adhirudha" is inspired from "Für Elise", a composition for piano by German musician Ludwig van Beethoven, and Karthik played this song in guitar.[13][14] After Sarjun being roped in for the anthology whose segment titled Thunindha Pinn, Sundaramurthy KS, who worked with Sarjun in the short films Lakshmi (2017), Maa (2018) and with the feature film Airaa (2019), was roped in for this segment,[15] and composed two songs: "The Bleeding Heart (Osara Parandhu Vaa)"[16] and "The Comrade Theme (Dhooramai Kanaa)" sung by Uday Kannan. Composers Govind Vasantha and Justin Prabhakaran had scored two tracks each for the series. The song "Kannunjal" is set in Anandabhairavi raga.[17]

A. R. Rahman composed the theme music for the official teaser released on 9 July 2021.[18][19] The theme features violin interlude, blended with classical instruments and also vocals accompanied by Nakul Abhyankar in the background.[20] Think Music India released the theme song through streaming platforms the very same day, along with five other songs as singles,[21] the first being "Thooriga" from the segment Guitar Kambi Mele Nindru which was composed and sung by Karthik and written by Madhan Karky.[12] The second song titled "The Bleeding Heart (Osara Parandhu Vaa)" was recorded by Vrusha Balu of Super Singer Season 8 fame and composed by Sundaramurthy KS with lyrics penned by Soundararajan released on the same day.[22] The full soundtrack was later released on 16 July 2021.[10]

Navarasa's soundtrack received mostly positive reviews from critics and audiences. Karthik Keramalu of Hindustan Times opined the album as "well composed" and rated the album 4 out of 5.[23] Both the websites Behindwoods and Indiaglitz had stated that "Suriya's segment dominates the music playlist with truly enchanting music pieces by Karthik, which was the exciting one" but they wrote that "A. R. Rahman's 'Navarasa Title Theme' is the standout from the lot".[24][25] Milliblog's Karthik Srinivasan wrote in its review for Navarasa title theme, saying "the sweep of the theme is indicative of the working relationship of Rahman and Mani Ratnam (Navarasa's producer) and how it still has that spark after almost 30 years!".[26] In another review, Karthik stated that the songs "Thooriga" as "a great blending of a new song with an old, very familiar, and much-loved soul"; "Alai Alaiyaaga" as a "beautifully calm melody", "Yaadho" and "Kannunjal" as "better" in standards.[17] Vipin Nair's review about the soundtrack in Music Aloud stated the album as "brilliant" giving a 3.5 out of 5 rating.[27]

On 5 August 2021, a day before the official release of the series, Mani Ratnam and Jayendra Panchapakesan hosted a live music event for the series' promotions titled Navarasa: The Symphony of Emotions.[28] Based on the Indian concepts of Navarasas, it was hosted by Dhivyadharshini and featured musical performances from artists all over the world, each artist represent different emotions through the numbers performed: anger, compassion, courage, disgust, fear, laughter, love, peace and wonder, and featured a live interaction between the artists, crew members and technicians working on the series.[29] A fundraiser event, the artists performed live film music on stage, to support the technicains working on the Tamil music industry, who were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.[30] The ensemble artists performed in the songs were flautist Naveen Kumar, Viveick Rajagopalan, Abhishek Kumar, K.C. Loy, Piyush Rajani and The Fine Tuners, Mahesh Raghvan, Nandini Shankar, Shashaa Tirupati, Anantha Krishnan, Ricky Kej, Kunal Naik and A. R. Rahman's K. M. M. C. Choir.[30][29]

Credits adapted from Think Music India