True to the opening lines of Mahakavi Subramania Bharati’s song Nalladhor veenai seidhe, adhai nalam keda, puzhudhiyil yerivadhundo, Solladi Sivashakti (You crafted a perfect veena. But would you let it go to waste, casting it into the dust to rot? Answer me, Siva Shakti.)These lines, in a way, reflect senior mridangist K. Arun Prakash’s musical journey. He inherited his compositional talent from his father, L. Krishnan, a well-known composer, and has put it to good use in recent years. Solladi Sivashakti, his recent album is proof of it. It comprises Bharati’s six compositions — ‘Nalladhor veenai’, ‘Veenaiyadi nee enakku’, ‘Aaduvome’, ‘Kaakkai chiraginile’, ‘Theeradha vilayaatu pillai’ and ‘Senthamizh Nadennum’, which have been sung by renowned vocalist Bombay Jayashri Ramnath. Though released in 2021, it has been streaming on Arun’s YouTube channel since early this year. The highlight of the album is the use of live orchestration consisting of 30 musicians.Says Arun, “If you want the emotions to remain intact, it is possible only with a live orchestra. Why substitute musicians?” According to Arun Prakash, live orchestra had largely disappeared in film-song recording by the 1990s. Seeking to revive that tradition, he has used the vibraphone on three tracks of Solladi Sivashakti. Veteran musicians who had once played for live recordings — vibraphone artiste Jeevanandam, violinist Rex Isaac, guitarist Sadhanandam, sitarist Kishore Lingappa, shehnai artist Pt Balesh, and percussionist S. Jayachandran (Jaychaa) — were happy to be part of the project,” adds Arun. The recording, editing, mixing and mastering have been handled by Biju James.Arun’s conviction about the greater impact of live instrumentation took shape early, when he would analyse the music of film songs with his father, a disciple of G.N. Balasubramaniam. Bharati’s verses have been an abiding influence on Arun since childhood. ‘There is so much melody in his lyrics that the tune is merely an ornament.”