Produced and presented by Mani Ratnam and Jayendra Panchapakesan, the 9 part anthology marks the coming together of 9 Kollywood directors, namely Bejoy Nambiar, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Priyadarshan, Karthik Subbaraj, Vasanth S. Sai, Karthick Naren, Sarjun KM, Rathindran R. Prasad and Arvind Swamy, who makes his directorial debut.
The anthology series is based on 9 rasas or human emotions – Shringara (Love/Beauty), Hasya (Laughter/Joy), Karuna (Sorrow/Compassion), Raudra (Anger), Veera (Courage), Bhayankara (Fear), Adbutha (Surprise/Wonder), Bibhatsya (Disgust) and Shantha (Peace). Embarking on this journey of bringing each rasa to life, is a magnificent ensemble cast featuring Suriya, Vijay Sethupathi, Prasanna, Revathi, Aditi Balan, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Prakash Raj, Siddharth, Delhi Ganesh, Prayaga Martin, Yogi Babu and Arvind Swami himself, amongst others.
Its interesting to note that the teaser released on 9th July, manages to keep audiences hooked despite revealing nothing from the plot. Instead, we see close-up shots of the actors from the ensemble cast, dressed in black, performing different rasas (emotions) in front of the camera. From love to anger and surprise to fear, the monochromatic video presents a rollercoaster of different emotions.
“The idea was to do something encompassing all the emotions, featuring the key talents from different episodes and bring it all under the umbrella of Navarasa. We wanted to focus on every emotion by shifting the attention particularly on the emotional transitions and peaks, like the burst of anger or shock. These moments were further elaborated by music as well as visuals, making it an opera of emotions,” said filmmaker Bharat Bala, who conceptualised and directed the teaser. Explaining why the makers chose this approach, the Maryan director says, “The costumes, colours, the roles of these characters in their respective shorts or other details in the background, would have acted as a distraction. There was a sense of simplicity to the idea and we stuck very strongly to that. Our focus was solely on the human story of emotions. I did get an opportunity to see the early edits from some of the shorts when Mani sir and Jayendra approached me, to understand how it evolved, but we did not try to connect the visuals with the stories the actors will be featuring in.”
To explain the development process of the idea, Cinematographer Sudeep Elamon said, “We have all seen these emotions, even in earlier movies done by the actors from Navarasa. But we wanted to capture it in a way we have never seen before, which is why you see close-up shots of the actor, where we have paid great attention to minute details. Even for a commonly known emotion like smiling, when you shoot close-up shots at high speed, we see details such as how the facial muscles move”. He also emphasises that in these visuals, strangely we neither pay attention to the stars nor their stardom, but the array of emotions they portray.
Vijay Karthik Kannan, also part of the project as cinematographer, adds, “I haven’t seen face emotions change at 1000 frames per second before. We had to capture every intimate emotion to the fullest. It had to be very personal and not too cinematic. Which is why the camera was closer to the actors.”
To understand this elaborate thought process further, let’s take the example of the segment portraying the emotion of Love, Gautham Menon’s short ‘Guitar Kambi Mele Nindru’. Decoding the emotions portrayed by the lead actors Suriya and Prayaga, we see that Suriya’s shot features him entering the frame with smoke surrounding him, but he leaves us with a peaceful, happy smile. Whereas, the visuals featuring Prayaga, we see her drenched in the rain or against the backdrop of water, denoting love and desire. Explaining how the viewers perceive these emotions, Bharat Bala says that it’s based on the fact that we associate emotions with certain elements. “Elements like fire are generally used for anger or vengeance, whereas water is used for love,” he says. The interesting collage of actors Parvathy and Siddharth’s reactions have been used to present a startling image, connoting the emotion of wonder.
Cinematographer Vijay Karthik also shares some BTS details from Vijay Sethupathi’s shoot for the teaser. “A lot of improvisation happened on the sets with respect to Vijay Sethpathi’s shots. He said he’d chew betel nut for striking a wicked smile. It worked well and the shot made it to the final edit,” the cinematographer shares. He further says, “We also tried to shoot all nine rasas at one go with him. He did till the eighth one, but we don’t see the shot in the teaser.” Sudeep added, “While smoke just adds to the aesthetics of the visuals, that was not the case with fire since it is associated with anger and other such emotions. The flickering fire that we see in Vijay Sethupathi’s shot was actually a continuation of the flame in Aditi’s shot.”
The only point where the makers add a splash of colour, however, is when Revathy wipes off her red sindoor/ bindi, worn by women to signify their marriage, as per Hindu traditions. The act of wiping off a bindi is usually associated with widowhood. Bala says, “We used colour for this shot in particular to heighten the pain she goes through, to shine light on the grief and the sense of loss she feels.”
One must understand how testing it must have been for actors to display emotional transitions within a few seconds. “We had given very specific instructions to the actors, such as wanting them to keep their eyes open while crying, make a teardrop roll down their cheek at one particular moment or details about the movement of their facial muscles, that they had to prepare for. Pooja Devariya, who was on board as the acting coach, helped the actors with their expressions,” says Bala, before admitting that it was quite the task.
The anthology is a one-of-its-kind initiative aimed at raising funds and extending support to the Tamil film fraternity impacted by the pandemic. Reportedly, none of the actors and directors have charged any remuneration for their work in the series and all the proceeds from the project will be donated to this cause.
The makers are releasing one poster each day of the 9 different segments. This time around they are all in colour. So far, the posters of ‘Edhiri’, ‘Summer of 92’, ‘Project Agni’ and ‘Payasam’ are out, the last being today’s drop. ‘Navarasa‘ is set to premiere on Netflix on 6th August.
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