Vaathi Coming! Thambola band heading in the right direction
2 min read Express News Service
MALAPPURAM: The intro tune ‘Vaathi Coming’ of Vijay within the Tamil film ‘Master’ has crossed 120 million views on YouTube. The viral video has catapulted the Malappuram-based VMK Thambolam Music Band — which performed the drums for the tune — into stardom. The band comprising 26 children from Velimukku in Malappuram specialize in ‘Thambola melam’ — a standard percussion artwork that includes devices like thambolam, thasaha and maracas.
After the discharge of Master, the band has been showered with reward, particularly by Vijay followers from all the world over. It began off final February with an affiliate of music director Anirudh Ravichander calling VMK supervisor Vinod T asking the band to carry out on the drums for the tune. But the children — engaged in a wide range of jobs, from financial institution clerk to day by day wage labourers — have been unable to go to Chennai for the recording. Later, three staff members reached a studio in Kochi with Anirudh to document and shoot the band’s efficiency the identical month. The lyric video of the tune was launched in March. “We are really happy to have played a huge role in the success of the song. We had dreamt of a breakthrough but never expected it to be like this,” mentioned Vaishak Narayanan, the lead performer of the band.
Though the band was shaped in 2012 to carry out at festivals in temples and church buildings, the children have achieved in lower than ten years what stays a dream for a lot of — to work for a film. “Our band took shape after we noticed the art form being performed in the rural areas of Palakkad. We found time to practice in the evenings after work and on holidays,” Narayanan mentioned.
Starting out with a couple of bookings for festivals and inaugurations, they grew over a time frame. They additionally took to the YouYube. “We improvised several compositions, especially film songs and BGMs. Music director Anirudh approached us after watching our improvised videos. We also improvised the Petra BGM composed by Ravichander,” Narayanan added.
After folks realised VMK performed drums for ‘Vaathi Coming’, the band has began receiving extra affords to affiliate with Tamil motion pictures and common organisations. But most of these initiatives needed to be deserted due to Covid. “People in our area used to get annoyed with our practice because of the loud noise. Now, they have started to accept us. We want to develop VMK into a nationally recognised band,” mentioned Vinod T, who additionally doubles up because the supervisor of the band.
