CHENNAI: All it took was a phone call from Guruvayur Temple for singer VV Prassanna to make his debut in the devotional music genre in Malayalam with Ende Guruvayoorappa. The musical composition, a divine dedication to Lord Krishna, was released on his YouTube channel, VV Prassanna, for Krishna Jayanthi on September 10. Moved by the opportunity, Prassanna says, “I had composed a list of songs for Purandara Dasa, the great devotee of Lord Krishna, eight years back.
The songs are popularly played in Udupi Krishna temples to date. People from Guruvayur wanted a particular composition from the list for the occasion. So I retained the tune and Unnikrishnan Meetna penned the lyrics in Malayalam. That’s how the song was born.” P Sreshtaa, Prassanna’s daughter, has also made her singing debut with this song.
“Sreshtaa had sung a small portion in the original composition Jo Jo Yashodeya for Udupi Krishna temples eight years back — the song is said to put Lord Krishna to sleep. In the recent song, the lyrics pularvelaya Krishna, manase pularvelaya... are intended to wake Krishna up from his sleep and prepare him for a coronation with butter at the Guruvayur Temple. She has sung the charanam and a few more lines for this song,” shares Prassanna, a playback singer and Carnatic vocalist.
Rajhesh Vaidhya and BV Balasai accompanied the father- daughter duo on the veena and flute respectively. The video has dancer Rashmikha Kannan interpreting bhakti through her graceful movements. “I got a crew of like-minded people. It took only four days for us to put together this song. Most of the time went in searching for a location to shoot the video, considering the circumstances. I had a budget constraint.
After visiting 42 temples in and around Chennai, we finally shot this at DakshinaChitra Museum in the first week of September after getting permissions from the museum with the help of a wellwisher. Truly, everything happened by Krishna’s grace,” he shares. The song has received more than 25,000 views. “We wanted an organic reach via wordof- mouth. This is my first Malayalam song and Malayalis from all pockets of the world praised me for the effort. There were a few discrepancies in the video quality. But there’s only so much you can do virtually,” he explains.
Like many performing artistes, Prassanna too has been rendering virtual Carnatic concerts for rasikas across the globe. “The lockdown has been fruitful. Most of the time went in running, praying and singing. I know to operate music software, stream my programme, and most of the other technical aspects that I would otherwise have to depend on people,” says Prassanna, who has composed music for the yet-to-be released film Kalari. He’s currently working on two more film projects.
Ende Guruvayoorappa is available on the YouTube channel VV Prassanna