Santhosh Narayanan’s soundtracks for the recently released Tamil films Karnan and Jagame Thandhiram could not be more different from one ...
Santhosh Narayanan’s soundtracks for the recently released Tamil films Karnan and Jagame Thandhiram could not be more different from one another. Yet, each album testifies to the composer’s signature style.
While Karnan’s soundscape is sombre and angst-bitten, the Jagame Thandhiram album is all funk and fun. Groovy basslines, unexpected chord progressions and genre mash-ups are held together by minimalist production in both projects.
Mari Selvaraj (Karnan) and Karthik Subbaraj (Jagame Thandhiram) have been Narayanan’s collaborators for years. Along with Pa Ranjith and Nalan Kumarasamy, they are part of a group that has strongly influenced Narayanan. They encouraged Narayanan, originally an electronic musician, to experiment with Tamil folk music, he told Scroll.in.
Narayanan’s first film Attakathi (2012), directed by Ranjith, featured a number of hit songs in the urban folk tradition gaana. Narayanan has prominently featured gaana songs in his films ever since, placing gaana singers such as Gana Bala and folk Anthony Dasan in the mainstream.
“I had little knowledge of the various communities and folk forms of the country in my early days,” Narayanan said. “These directors taught me a lot about political philosophy and ideology and pushed me to research more about indigenous music. Before Attakathi, I had no idea about how to do acoustic...
