A series comprising of modern renditions of traditional ragas, a confluence of the traditional with the contemporary, has been started by Greenroom, an artist management agency based out of Bengaluru. Launched just in time for the December/Margazhi festival on Greenroom Live, the series aims to retain the spirit of the festival but with a modern twist.
Three videos have been released so far as part of their ‘Margazhi Reloaded’ campaign featuring artists like eminent Veena player Rajhesh Vaidhya, Carnatic singer Sharanya Srinivas, violinist Shravan Sridhar, Mridangam player Akshay Anantapadmanabhan and many others.
The first video, released on December 13, is a contemporary take on the Raga Pantuvarali featuring Mahesh Raghvan, Rajhesh Vaidhya and Mt Aditya Srinivasan. Composed by Rajesh Vaidhya, the song’s contemporary arrangement has been done by Mahesh Raghvan who plays the tunes on an iPad. Percussionist Aditya Srinivasan MT in addition to seen playing the tabla in this video, has also taken the mantle of recording, mixing and mastering.
The second video, released a week later, is the remastered version of Raga Charukeshi featuring 11-year-old Rahul Vellal and also has Mahesh Raghvan playing on the iPad, Shravan Sridhar on electric Violin and Akshay Anantapadmanabhan on the mridangam. This piece has been composed and produced by Mahesh. The four-minute video captured the beauty of the soul-stirring Raga coming through young Rahul’s notes.
The most recent video was released a week ago on January 7 and is a fusion Thillana in Raga Dwijavanthi. Composed and produced by Mahesh the piece has singer Sharanya Srinivas, Shravan Sridhar and Akshay Anantapadmanabhan. The lyrics of this Thillana have been written by Rajani Shridhar.
Greenroom was co-founded by Lakshmi Balasubramanian and Praveen Koka. Lakshmi, with over 10 years of experience in the television industry, began Greenroom to bridge the gap between talent and opportunity in the country. The team has planned for a total of seven such videos. For more updates, check out their Facebook page here.