Musician Rajesh Muthupandian’s video album ‘Nattrai’ raises a toast to motherhood

It’s a double treat — visuals of the snow-capped Ponmudi hills of Kerala, swaying greenery, and endless stretches of farmlands unfold, along with an invigorating orchestration of violins as the melody begins in the music video Nattrai. It captures the bond between a single mother and a girl child set against the backdrop of Nature.

“Just to shoot the opening visuals we spent a few days at Ponmudi. We also covered a few villages on the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border filming at coconut groves, guava orchards and paddy fields. We also shot in Tenkasi district,” says musician Rajesh Muthupandian. The song in Tamil, shows a teenage girl remembering her childhood spent with her mother in her village. Rajesh will launch the song under his own RM Productions on Mother’s Day (May 9).

A melody

The Tamil word nattrai, he says is taken from Ilango Adigal’s Silapathikaram, where the poet uses words like eenrai and nattrai with reference to motherhood. “The five-minute song showcases the amma sentiment which everyone can relate to. Mothers are always special. When I told my parents that I wanted to pursue music (after my Engineering degree) it was my mother who motivated me first,” he says. The melody, sung by Dhanyashree of Airtel Super Singer fame, has classical and western rhythm to it, so there is the use of tabla as well aswestern instruments.

Rajesh was in the first batch of AR Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory in Chennai and has so far dabbled in music for albums, ad jingles, short films, and documentaries. His music for a short film Paei Seththu Pochu, a horror comedy brought him recognition. Popular playback singers like KS Chithra, Mukesh, Pushpavanam Kuppusamy and Padmalatha have lent their voices to some of his compositions.

Looking back at his 10-year music journey, he says, it was his award-winning music album Then Sindhum Pookal that was the turning point. “I made it for a team of Tamil people in Sri Lanka. It was in the romance genre and was shot at Vavuniya there and became a big hit. I worked in over 15 albums after that.”

Rajesh has also trained over 50 aspiring musicians using the StarMaker app. “ It was an experiment. The students pick a familiar movie song, then I teach them through the swara without using lyrics or instrumentation. Since they know the song, they easily pick up the classical essence.”

As Rajesh awaits a big break in Tamil films, he continues to make music albums. “My team worked on Nattrai all through lockdown. Paying a tribute to our mothers kept us all charged.”

The song streams on the Rajesh Muthupandian YouTube Channel from May 9