Hear Singer Madhav Krishna and Composer Prateek Gandhi’s Reminisce on ‘Ennodu Vaa’

During the course of the past year that people spent predominantly indoors due to the pandemic, singer Madhav Krishna and lyricist Jayashree L. Narayanan took on the responsibility of feeding stray dogs in their apartment residence in Mumbai. “Being around Jayashree, I saw a whole different connection with dogs,” says Krishna, also an engineer working for a multinational corporation.

The experience led to Narayanan penning her thoughts down in Tamil. Coincidentally, Krishna was already acquainted with composer and producer Prateek Gandhi for work in Tamil music. “I wanted to work on indie music in Tamil and he also wanted to do something in the language. It was great,” Krishna says. It led to the creation of their saccharine new collaboration “Ennodu Vaa,” which recounts memories shared between a person and their canine companion.

Krishna, a classically trained Carnatic vocalist who’s also lent his voice to music in Hindi films such as ABCD and its sequel ABCD 2, says they got to a point of clarity while making the track. “By the end of it, we were clear that we didn’t want to give it to anyone and we’d release it by ourselves,” the singer says.

The delicate track in Tamil is supplied with a moody animated video made by animators Wacky Fingers and Aiswarya Keyan, which mirror the heartfelt lyrics of joy, love and longing. Krishna says the team worked on the storyboard and animation starting in October last year. There’s also a Hindi version of the song in the pipeline.

“Ennodu Vaa” is the first of more collaborative work between Gandhi and Krishna, including a song that combines the artists’ Rajasthani and Tamil roots, respectively. “The lockdown realization for me was that anything you do independently will go a long way in your journey,” Krishna adds.

Watch the video for “Ennodu Vaa” below.