Navarasa (web series)

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Navarasa
Promotional poster
Genre	Drama Anthology
Created by	Mani Ratnam
Written by	Mani Ratnam Arvind Swami Pattukkottai Prabakar Thi. Janakiraman Selvaa Madhan Karky Someetharan Arpita Chaterjee
Directed by	Priyadarshan Vasanth Gautham Vasudev Menon Bejoy Nambiar Karthik Subbaraj Sarjun KM Karthick Naren Arvind Swami Rathindran R. Prasad
Starring	Suriya Vijay Sethupathi Manikuttan Arvind Swami Siddarth Atharvaa Revathi Anjali Bobby Simha Sananth Parvathy Thiruvothu Yogi Babu Aditi Balan Prakash Raj Gautham Vasudev Menon Prasanna Shamna Kasim Riythvika Rohini Prayaga Martin Delhi Ganesh Ramya Nambeesan Nedumudi Venu
Composers	A. R. Rahman Santhosh Narayanan Sundaramurthy KS Rajesh Murugesan Karthik Ron Ethan Yohann Govind Vasantha Justin Prabhakaran Vishal Bhardwaj
Country of origin	India
Original language	Tamil
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	9
Production
Producers	Mani Ratnam Jayendra Panchapakesan
Cinematography	PC Sreeram Santosh Sivan Sudarshan Srinivasan Sathyan Sooryan Shreyaas Krishna Harshvir Oberai Sujith Sarang N. K. Ekambaram Viraj Singh
Running time	30- 48 minutes
Production companies	Madras Talkies Qube Cinema Technologies
Release
Original network	Netflix
Original release	6 August 2021

Navarasa (transl. Nine emotions) is an Indian anthology streaming television series created by Mani Ratnam, who also collaborated with Jayendra Panchapakesan to produce the series through their respective banners Madras Talkies and Qube Cinema Technologies.^[1] The series features nine stand-alone episodes based on the Indian concept of the Navarasas, filmed by Priyadarshan, Karthik Subbaraj, Vasanth, Arvind Swami, Bejoy Nambiar, Karthick Naren, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Sarjun KM and Rathindran R. Prasad. It stars an ensemble cast of Suriya, Vijay Sethupathi,Manikuttan, Siddharth, Revathi, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Prayaga Martin, Arvind Swami, Prasanna, Poorna, Delhi Ganesh, Rohini, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Yogi Babu, Remya Nambeesan, Aditi Balan, Bobby Simha, Riythvika, Sree Raam, Atharvaa, Nedumudi Venu, Anjali, Kishore amongst others.

The idea for the series was conceived when Mani Ratnam and Jayendra worked on activities for social causes, and planned to direct a project for a streaming service in order to help the daily-wage workers and other members from the Film Employees Federation of South India (FEFSI), affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, by generating funds through this project. Marking the digital debut for Mani Ratnam and the production studio Madras Talkies,the company teamed up with FEFSI and Bhoomika Trust for the fundraising activities. After an official announcement during October 2020, with the cast and crew members, including the directors, writers, composers, cinematographers and editors working in the film, the production of the short film-episodes began during the same month and ended within March 2021. Three proposed films of directors Halitha Shameem, Ponram and K. V. Anand, were dropped during the production stage.

Navarasa was the most anticipated Tamil project in the streaming service, due to the star cast, technicians and directors working in the project and the promotional campaigns. The series released on 6 August 2021 through Netflix.^[2]

Premise

The nine episodes represent a different emotion or rasa such as anger, compassion, courage, disgust, fear, laughter, love, peace and wonder.^[3]

Episodes

Title	Director	Writer(s)	Music Director	Cinematographer	Editor
Edhiri (Karuna – Compassion)[4]	Bejoy Nambiar	Bejoy Nambiar, Arpita Chatterjee, Mani Ratnam	Govind Vasantha	Harshvir Oberai	Veena Jayaprakash
Summer of '92 (Haasya – Laughter)[5]	Priyadarshan	Priyadarshan	Rajesh Murugesan	V. Babu	Ruben
Project Agni (Adbhutha – Wonder)[6]	Karthick Naren	Karthick Naren	Ron Ethan Yohann	Sujith Sarang	Sreejith Sarang
Payasam (Bibhatsa – Disgust)[7]	Vasanth	Vasanth, Thi. Janakiraman	Justin Prabhakaran	Sathyan Sooryan	Sangathamizhan E.
Peace (Shaantha – Peace)[8]	Karthik Subbaraj	Karthik Subbaraj, Someetharan	Santhosh Narayanan	Shreyaas Krishna	Vivek Harshan
Rowthiram (Raudra – Anger)[9]	Arvind Swami	Pattukottai Prabhakar, Selva, Arvind Swami	A. R. Rahman	Santhosh Sivan	Sreejith Sarang
Inmai (Bhayaanaka – Fear)[10]	Rathindran R. Prasad	Rathindran R. Prasad	Vishal Bhardwaj	Viraj Singh	A. Sreekar Prasad
Thunindha Pinn (Veera – Valour)[11]	Sarjun KM	Sarjun KM, Priyanka Ravindran, Mani Ratnam	Sundaramurthy KS	Sudarshan Srinivasan	Karthik Jogesh
Guitar Kambi Mele Nindru (Shringaara – Romance)[12]	Gautham Vasudev Menon	Gautham Vasudev Menon, Madhan Karky	Karthik	P. C. Sreeram	Anthony

Plot

Edhiri (Karuna - Compassion)

On 1 January 2020, Dheena (Vijay Sethupathi) visits the house of a unidentified man. The man's wife Savithri (Revathi) is tutoring the children of her domestic servant. After a while, Savitri goes to her husband's room and finds, to her horror, that he has been killed. Meanwhile, Dheena sends his wife Malli (Sai Tamhankar) and toddler daughter to safety and takes shelter in his grandmother's house. As the police investigation is on, Savithri's son Varun (Ashok Selvan) unsuccessfully persuades her to reveal the identity of the killer.

Meanwhile, a mysterious man (Prakash Raj) at Dheena's grandmother's house repeatedly tries to speak with him, much to Dheena's annoyance. Later, in October 2020, Dheena admits that he sought shelter after killing the man he holds responsible for his elder brother's suicide. He had gone to check if the man had any "remorse, regret or compassion", but became enraged at the man's insulting remarks toward Dheena's dead brother. The mysterious man (now visible to the viewer as a reincarnation of the murdered man (Prakash Raj) declares himself to be the manifestation of all the hatred that Dheena has fostered against those who have hurt him since his early life. He further asks if, since he has been killed, Dheena has forgiven the others. He adds that Dheena hates his character, not his body, which Dheena is still carrying, and that he will continue to shadow Dheena until he has gotten rid of the latter. He also asks Dheena to think what he would have done had he been in his shoes. Having said all this, he sings lines from the song "Manithan Enbavan Deivam Aagalam" ["A man can become God" - from the film Sumaithaangi]. Later, Dheena is sent to another destination, with the news that his wife and daughter will soon catch up with him. Over the phone, he makes a cryptic statement to Malli: "I don't know if what I've decided is right or wrong. I hope you'll understand".

In January–February 2021, Savithri leaves her house to visit the temple, despite opposition from a visiting relative (a reference to restrictions on Hindu widows). As she is praying at a spot in the temple complex, Dheena comes up to her and seeks her forgiveness for his deed. Savithri implies that her husband and Dheena could have better handled all the events leading up to the murder, and that she hasn't spoke to her husband for several years due to an argument and her own non-interference in the final confrontation makes her guilty as well. She concludes that she has no right to forgive or punish Dheena.

Summer of '92 (Haasya - Laugh)

Velusamy (Yogi Babu), a famous comedian, is invited as chief guest to his old school. As he gives a speech to the student body, he recalls all of his school memories, being the naughtiest kid who failed the 9th grade four times. Each time he happened to get on the bad side of his teachers, which led to him being failed. He recalls that during his last year in the 9th grade, he ended up spoiling the chances of an arranged marriage for a teacher - Lakshmi (Remya Nambeesan) - who was also the principal’s daughter. Her family had an annoying dog -"King" - that the principal constantly tried to get rid of. But King is stubborn and always returns home to the daughter no matter how far away he takes it. As a last resort, the principal (Nedumudi Venu) recruits Velusamy and his friends to take King far away from his house on the day a prospective groom is coming. But King escapes, ends up covered in feces and starts running back home. Just as the prospective groom’s family is about make the alliance official with the principal’s daughter, King enters and shakes off the feces from its body, coating everyone in the house. The marriage is cancelled, and Velusamy is kicked out of school by the principal.

At the end of the flashback, Velusamy apologizes to Lakshmi who has remained unmarried all these years. She says she forgives him and praises him for his accomplishments despite not passing the 9th grade. But she adds that the smell from that day still hasn’t left her house.

Project Agni (Adbhutha - Wonder)

The episode starts with Vishnu (Arvind Swami) recording himself discussing his struggles after discovering something about reality and the future. Flashbacks are shown of his wife and son on a beach, where he is deep in thought and not paying attention to his family. There are also scenes that show him standing alone on that beach with a gun. It’s revealed that Vishnu is a scientist who does his research about the universe and time. He rejected an offer from ISRO (Indian space research organization) as he didn't want to work in a confined space and wants his mind to be free.

One day, he invites his friend Krishna(Prasanna) - who works in ISRO - over to his home to share something mind-blowing. Vishnu shows him the date December 21, 2012 which is when the Mayan calender predicted that world would end. But since that it didn't happen, he theorizes that an extremely intelligent alien species called “Annunaki” are the ones controlling our reality. He tells Krishna that the universe is a computer stimulation controlled by them - that our whole life is programmed and we are characters in a game of life and death. He believes that’s why astrology also works. Krishna grows increasingly irritated with his absurd theories. Krishna becomes angry and he decides to leave. Suddenly Vishnu closes his eyes and seems to do something. Another Vishnu and Krishna appear in the house and they both tell the original Krishna to stay and listen to the rest of Vishnu’s theory. Vishnu goes on to say there are two worlds: one is our world we are living physically and another is a subconscious “dream” world in which we are living subconsciously. He believes that on December 21, 2012 our dream world started to be destroyed by mistake. He thinks that if things continue this way, humans will one day lose to ability to use our imagination or dream.

He invented an machine called Drifter with his assistant Kalki (Sai Siddharth) in which he could travel in time through his mind to study the ‘dream state’. He believes our whole life is mapped out already in our subconscious dream world, and we could learn about the future and the almighty ‘Creator’ if we accessed it. He reveals that he has mastered reaching his subconscious mind which gives him the power to connect with the ’Creator’. But he has been using a psychedelic drug called DMT to help him accomplish this.

During his last Drift which only lasted 10 minutes, he changed something in past which led to his wife Lakshmi (Poorna) and child disappearing in the present. He tells Krishna that while drifting, you have no control of the time and place you reach. He believes that when he drifted, he messed up the simulation set by the Annunaki, and created a glitch that erased his family. He adds that his ability to make things in his imagination a reality is a dangerous weapon. Vishnu gives a suitcase called ‘Project Agni’ to Krishna and tells him to open it when he leaves. He wanted to share his knowledge with him, and trusts he will use it with good intentions.

It is revealed that his assistant Kalki also drifted and gained power to control his mind. But he had evil motives after realizing the power behind his abilities. He wanted to construct another Drifter but it couldn't be done without ‘solution A’ in the suitcase. Vishnu’s letter to Krishna in the suitcase asks that he share it with his company and track down Kalki at all costs.

Meanwhile Vishnu is ready to kill himself over the guilt of erasing his family. Just as he is about to pull the trigger, his doorbell rings. He answers it only to find and Krishna and his wife. It then revealed that the person who first came was Kalki disguised as Krishna. Now with ‘solution A’ in his possession, he has full control of the world. The episode ends with Vishnu saying that he made a big mistake.

Payasam (Bibhatsa - Disgust)

In 1965 in a small Brahmin village in Kumbakonam, a brahmin (Delhi Ganesh) is seen going to the temple to perform an early morning pooja. He starts complaining about Subburayan (his nephew) to a woman at the temple. Subburayan’s daughter is getting married, and his uncle (Delhi Ganesh) is refusing to attend the wedding.

At Subbu’s house, his extended family has gathered for his daughter’s wedding. Subbu is earnestly making preparations for the wedding, with the hopes his uncle will attend and bless his daughter. At his home, a young widow (Aditi Balan) is seen helping out, though some family members seem to show discomfort for her presence. She speaks with the cook (Bagavathi Perumal ) at the wedding revealing that he cooked for her wedding too. She was married to a lawyer, but he died only 92 days into their marriage due to cholera. The young bride is later seen complaining that she wants her braid to be made longer with extensions as the groom previously saw her with long hair. The young widow brings her extensions to add to her hair and they share a hug.

Meanwhile the older man is still complaining at the temple. It’s revealed the woman with him is his wife (Rohini). She expresses her distaste for him relentlessly cursing his nephew Subbu and his family. She tells him that despite pulling his nephew out of school due to lack of funds, he established himself and even helped his other family members. Even the older man’s son got a job thanks to Subbu. She adds that with his wealth, he even bought land for his uncle. He shoots back saying the land was on the outskirts of the village and that it is worthless. Their children are attending the wedding, but the older man is still refusing. He continues ranting and reveals that his wife has passed away and he is talking to an illusion. He eventually agrees to go to the wedding.

At the wedding a young man revealed be the older man’s son asks the young widow (his sister) when their father is coming. She replies that she doesn’t know. He asks her to go back to their home and fetch him.

The wedding starts soon and the older man arrives. He is greeted by his daughter and son. Subbu finds them and greets him, offering a fancy coat to his uncle. He puts on a fake smile and accepts it. He watches the wedding and starts hearing his wife praising Subbu. He complains that his daughter had such trouble finding a suitable match, only to have the man pass away a few months later. Meanwhile, Subbu’s daughters had an easier time finding matches and they’ve been married off without a problem. He hates Subbu for being able to give his daughters a good life whereas he failed. He eventually tells his wife to go away. He also gets up and leaves as the wedding Thali is being tied. He walks away still feeling disgruntled, into the kitchen where the wedding cooks have been working all day. He sees the pot of payasam they’ve been making, and decides to knock it over. The cooks arrive after hearing it fall, but he claims to have done it because there was a dead rat in it. His daughter, knowing his true intentions, is disappointed and looks at him with disgust. Subbu asks his uncle to bless the couple. He puts on his fake smile again and does as he’s told.

Peace (Shaantha - Peace)

The story is set during the Sri Lankan Civil War, specifically sometime between July 1991 and January 2009.

Four LTTE militants are reinforcing their defence line set up near Elephant Pass.They come across a young boy who claims he has been separated from his grandmother and younger brother while fleeing from advance by the army. The boy further states that his brother Vellaiyan is alone at their house, vulnerable to attack by the army. Hearing his story, Nilavan (Bobby Simha), one of the militants, becomes pensive and wishes to save Vellaiyan. His comrades initially oppose his decision. Revealing the story of his paraplegic mother who died alone in a similar situation earlier, Nilavan wants to help the boy as a means to atone for his mother's death. The group's 'Master' (Gautham Vasudev Menon) permits him to carry out the plan. He also warns that Nilavan should return within ten minutes, the usual time window during which the military would be letting down their guard for their parade.

Nilavan heads to the boy's house, but he cannot find Vellaiyan. It turns out that the "younger brother" mentioned by the boy is a puppy. Feeling that they have been misled, Nilavan's comrades ask him to return without the puppy. Though Nilavan is initially angry at the boy for 'tricking' him, he decides to take Vellaiyan after hearing the boy's pleas over the walkie-talkie. On the way back, Nilavan is wounded in military firing but makes it to the hideout and hands over Vellaiyan to the happy boy. As his comrades treat his wounds and chide him for undertaking the risky operation, Nilavan declares that the enemies do not have his name written on their bullets, and "My death has been postponed by this pup". He says to 'Master' that he was motivated by memories of his mother and the pup's name -- 'Vellaiyan' is the name of his elder brother who was killed in a battle in 1988.

The story takes a drastic turn when Nilavan decides to shout thanks to the military for letting him complete the recue. This time, he succumbs to a shot. Nilavan's comrades begin to retaliate the military heavily. The boy runs away from the battlefield with Vellaiyan.

Roudhram (Raudra - Anger)

The story begins with a loan shark, Ganesan (Azhagam Perumal) scolding a shopkeeper for not repaying the interests on time. Despite the latter's pleas, he forces the shopkeeper to extract whatever little money he has in his pocket. Ganesan walks away from the shop when a boy, Arul (Sree Raam) attacks him with a hammer, critically injuring him. Arul is locked up and the police grill him for the reason behind his attack, but Arul refuses to give them an answer. Meanwhile a female cop (Riythvika), is desperate to know some answers related to an attack and is frustrated when her subordinates fail to get the suspect to answer. Arul reminisces of his past, where he hails from a poor background with his mom, a janitor and his school-going sister, Anbukarasi (Abhinayashree). Their day-to-day existence is hand-to-mouth because of his mother's low income. Arul and Anbu are sad that they aren't able to afford even good food and little possessions of their own. They discuss between themselves that they would rather run away and find better livelihood someday, their mom overhears this and silently cries seeing their sad state and at her inability to provide for them. Arul convinces his mom to take a loan from Ganesan. Soon, their little wishes like uninterrupted electricity, new clothes, food and shoes come to reality. Arul is awarded cash prize for winning a football tournament and he goes to Ganesan's house to return a part of the borrowed money. He is shocked when he finds his mom in a compromising position with Ganesan and leaves the place upset. It is shown that this is the reason why Arul had attacked Ganesan. The female cop receives a call from her brother (Ramesh Thilak), who says that their ailing mother wants to meet her one last time. It is then revealed that the female cop is in fact Anbu, and all the incidents earlier was from their past. It is shown that Anbu had also seen her mom with Ganesan on that day, but in contrast to what her brother did, Anbu chose to leave them and has not spoken to her mother since then. In the present day, Arul tries to convince Anbu to forget the past and says that their mom did such things only for their welfare. But Anbu, who is forever scarred by her mother's actions, is unable to forgive.

Inmai (Bhayaanaka - Fear)

The story begins when a rich lady Waheeda (Parvathy Thiruvothu), living in an expensive, art-festooned home decorated with her businessman husband’s money, has a visitor. Farooq (Siddharth), a charming calligrapher who she assumes works for her husband, visits her and requests for her signature on some documents, but the conversation tone quickly becomes flirtatious, which interests Waheeda. As the conversation continues, Waheeda receives a call, from which she realizes Farooq is not who he claims to be. She asks who he is and Farooq takes her to some flashbacks, which reveal that a young Waheeda (Ammu Abhirami) originally worked as a servant for a rich elderly man named Maraikkayar, who was suffering from a brain tumour. He falls for Waheeda and she marries him, assuming that he’ll die soon, but he doesn’t. His excitement over the relationship seems to have given him a new lease of life. In her desperation, Waheeda, on the advice of lover Anwar (Pavel Navageethan), turns to Hussein Hojja to summon a Djinn to kill Maraikkayar. Despite being warned of the unforgivable consequences of lying to secure a Djinn's services, Waheeda lies to Hojja that she was forcefully married off to Maraikkayar and was being tortured by the old man, so she wants him to die. Now, in the present it is implied that Farooq is the djinn manifested as a human being, who has come to seek its revenge for Waheeda’s deception. Waheeda is terrified at this revelation and in a desperate sequence, she begs for forgiveness, reeling off all the good deeds she has supposedly performed since then, in atonement for what she did. But secretly, she realizes that there is no escape, since she did not pay heed to Hojja's warning back then. She slashes her own throat to escape the horror the djinn is about to unleash on her. Farooq uses his calligraphy knowledge to forge Waheeda's signature on the documents, and explains the truth to her as she bleeds out on the floor. He reveals that Maraikkayar was definitely on his deathbed and his seeming recovery from his illness was merely a placebo effect before his death. Maraikkayar believed that Waheeda had miraculously cured him, but in reality, his tumour grew dormant because of the placebo effect. Meanwhile, one of Maraikkayar’s servants Jaffar, finds about Waheeda's black magic. Maraikkayar, on the other hand, began having hallucinations because of the tumor's malignancy, but Waheeda believed that the Djinn's black magic actually worked. Soon, Maraikkayar died and Waheeda, now in full control, fired Jaffar by accusing him of robbery, since he was the only person aware of the truth. This disgrace was too much for an honest man to bear, and Jaffar subsequently died of a heart attack, leaving behind his many daughters and an only son, revealed to be Farooq. It is shown that Farooq had plotted all the events leading to Waheeda's apparent suicide, to avenge his father's wrongful death.

Thunintha Pin (Veera - Valour)

A story on courage

Guitar Kambi Mele Nindru (Shringaara - Romance)

Kamal (Suriya) is an up-and-coming musician in the country. Having been only on the verge of success for quite a while, Kamal believes that he must leave the country for new opportunities to explore the full potential of his talent. His mother supports him in his dream. He meets Nethra (Prayaga Martin), a singer, during one of his recording sessions. They have an instant connection and sparks fly from the very moment they lay their eyes on each other. As fate would have it, they subsequently meet again the same day and Nethra accepts Kamal's request to drop her off in his bike. During the bike ride, they talk about how similar their interests are and about the effortless connection they have. At the end of the ride, Nethra confesses that she likes Kamal and is willing to date him to see if this could potentially become a serious relationship. Kamal is initially hesitant because of the age difference between them, but he is unable to refuse the obvious vibe that he shares with Nethra, so he agrees to give it a shot. He instantly composes a song to celebrate this special moment and sings it for her and she enjoys it immensely. At the end of the song, Kamal is seen to be performing in front of an audience, when he reveals that, while this was the story of how the song was composed, the girl (Nethra) whom he wrote it for, is not together with him anymore.

Cast

Edhiri	Summer of '92	Project Agni
Vijay Sethupathi as Dheena Revathi as Savithri Prakash Raj as Sivaraman Ashok Selvan as Varun Sai Tamhankar as Malli Yoe Parey	Manikuttan as Shanmugam Yogi Babu as Velusamy Nedumudi Venu as School Principal Remya Nambeesan as Lakshmi, Teacher Sakthivel as young Veluswamy Y. Gee. Mahendran as Krishna Iyer	Arvind Swami as Vishnu aka Vish Prasanna as Krishna Sai Siddharth as Kalki Poorna as Lakshmi
Payasam	Peace	Roudhram
Delhi Ganesh as Samanadhu Aditi Balan as Bhagyalakshmi aka Bhagyam Rohini as Valambal Bagavathi Perumal as chief cook	Bobby Simha as Nilavan, LTTE fighter Gautam Vasudev Menon as "Master", the local LTTE leader Sananth as Cheran, LTTE fighter Master Tharun as the boy	Riythvika as Anbukarasi Sree Raam as young Arul Azhagam Perumal as Ganesan Yuvasrias young Anbukarasi Geetha Kailasam as Chitrama Ramesh Thilak as Arul
Inmai	Thunintha Pin	Guitar Kambi Mele Nindru
Siddharth as Farooq aka Djinn Parvathy Thiruvothu as Waheeda Ammu Abhirami as Young Waheeda Pavel Navageethan as Anvar Rajesh Balachandran as Hussein Hojja Sheimour Roosevolt as Maraikkayar	Atharvaa as Vetri, a military man Kishore as Comrade Anjali as Muthulakshmi Azhagam Perumal as Chakravahy	Suriya as Kamal Prayaga Martin as Nethra

Production

Development

Navarasa marks the digital debut for Mani Ratnam and his production company Madras Talkies. Both Mani Ratnam and Jayendra jointly worked on fundraising activities for social causes, and during COVID-19 pandemic, Mani and Jayendra decided to work on a project based on the Indian aesthetics and human emotions, which they looked as an opportunity to generate enough funds to help the daily-wage workers.^[13] The project was initially intended to made as a web series instead of a feature film, due to the non-existent theatrical releases because of the pandemic and as the series being a nine-part anthology cannot be made into a feature film format for theatrical release, since the anthology has 30–40 minutes per story and emotion.^[14]

In July 2020, it was reported that Fahadh Faasil, Suriya and Vijay Sethupathi and Arvind Swami will be a part of the series, with the latter making his directorial debut by handling the direction duties for one episode of the series.^[15] Madras Talkies discussed the project with both Amazon Prime and Netflix, before confirming the project was to be made in conjunction with the latter during September 2020.^[16][17] On 28 October 2020, Netflix announced the project officially, revealing the cast and crew members working on the project,^[18] which will be bankrolled by Mani Ratnam, along with Jayendra Panchapakesan.^[19][20] Mani and Jayendra spoke to the respective directors via phone call, who were ready to work on the project, starting from young to experienced directors, though both of them did not direct any films for the anthology. The casting of the film were also made by the directors of the individual films while also being advised from Mani and Jayendra.^[14][21]

The artists, technicians and directors of the series are contributing towards the film without remuneration, with only the costs of production being associated. The profits earned from the project will be donated to the members of the Film Employees Federation of South India (FEFSI), who were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.^[22] In the process, the team started distributing prepaid cards to the workers from the end of March 2021 onwards, with each beneficiary receiving ₹1,500 per month on the prepaid card for a period of five months, which can be utilised at grocery outlets. FEFSI worked on with Bhoomika Trust for six months to identify the beneficiaries of the initiative, in which the cards will be received 10,500 FEFSI members and 1,000 theatre projectionists, according to Jayendra in The News Minute interview.^[23][24]

Filming

The series began filming from October 2020, after the Indian government announced relaxations following the COVID-19 lockdown. The first episode featuring Siddharth and Parvathy Thiruovthu, was kickstarted on the same month. Directed by Rathindran Prasad, the episode was completed within six days in Pondicherry.^[25][26] In November 2020, cinematographer P. C. Sreeram tweeted about the second anthology featuring Suriya and directed by Gautham Menon.^[27] The shooting which was commenced in Chennai, featured Suriya sporting a long hair for the segment.^[28][29] The segment also marked Suriya's reunion with Menon after a decade-long gap,^[30] whose last collaboration was Vaaranam Aayiram (2008).^[31] The filming was wrapped up within five days.^[32] Reports have suggested that the segment's title with Suriya will play a musician,^[33] is based on a popular Ilaiyaraaja song, for which Menon had sought permission from the composer to use the title.^[34] However, the segment's title was later revealed as Guitar Kambi Mele Nindru.^[35][36]

Karthick Naren began filming for his segment featuring Arvind Swamy , Prasanna and Shamna Kasim in December 2020.^[37] Halitha Shameem was replaced by Sarjun KM as the director as she exited the project due to busy schedules. His anthology starred Atharvaa in the lead along with Anjali and Kishore in supporting roles.^[38] In January 2021, veteran filmmaker Priyadarshan announced his part in the project replacing Ponram, whose segment features Yogi Babu in the lead.^[39] Further, Vasanth replaced K. V. Anand following his death, in another segment featuring Aditi Balan in the lead,^[40] which marked Vasanth's reunion with Mani Ratnam after 24 years.^[41] The shooting which began in Karaikkudi in March 2021 was wrapped up within a week.^[40] After the series completion, Mani Ratnam and Jayendra felicitated an event to honour the FEFSI workers on 28 March 2021.^[42]

Three segments by directors that had initially been announced, were dropped during the production stage. Ponram's Town Bus featuring Gautham Karthik, Robo Shankar and Saravanan, was shot and completed in Kodaikanal during October 2020.^[43][44] However, the episode was later not included in the anthology.^[39] Halitha Shameem opted out from her commitments for the series during December 2020.^[38] In March 2021, K. V. Anand's proposed episode starring Vikranth and Aishwarya Rajesh was also later cancelled.^[40]

Music

Navarasa
Soundtrack album by A. R. Rahman, Santhosh Narayanan, Sundaramurthy K. S., Rajesh Murugesan, Karthik, Ron Ethan Yohann, Govind Vasantha, Justin Prabhakaran and Vishal Bhardwaj
Released	16 July 2021
Recorded	2020–2021
Genre	Netflix Original Series Soundtrack
Length	25:46
Language	Tamil
Label	Think Music
Producer	Mani Ratnam Jayendra Panchapakesan

The soundtrack and background music is composed by A. R. Rahman, Santhosh Narayanan, Sundaramurthy K. S., Rajesh Murugesan, Karthik, Ron Ethan Yohann, Govind Vasantha and Justin Prabhakaran^[45] and featured lyrics written by Madhan Karky, Uma Devi and Soundararajan.^[46]

Track-List

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Navarasa Title Theme"	Instrumental	A. R. Rahman	Instrumental	2:30
2.	"Thooriga"	Madhan Karky	Karthik	Karthik	3:39
3.	"The Bleeding Heart (Osara Parandhu Vaa)"	Soundararajan	Sundaramurthy K. S.	Vrusha Balu	3:24
4.	"Yaatho"	Madhan Karky	Govind Vasantha	Chinmayi	4.11
5.	"Kannunjal"	Uma Devi	Justin Prabhakaran	Sudha Raghunathan	2:53
6.	"Alai Alaiyaga"	Madhan Karky	Karthik	Karthik	1:51
7.	"The Comrade Theme (Dhooramai Kanaa)"	Soundararajan	Sundaramurthy K. S.	Udhay Kannan	2:09
8.	"Naanum"	Madhan Karky	Karthik	Karthik	3:44
9.	"Adhirudha"	Madhan Karky	Karthik	Karthik	2:18
10.	"Navarasa Trailer Theme"	Instrumental	Govind Vasantha	Instrumental	2:00

Marketing and release

Navarasa was one of the most anticipated Indian projects releasing through digital streaming service^[47] and also the second big-budget Tamil original from Netflix, after Jagame Thandhiram which was distributed by the platform.^[48][49] Netflix India released few snippets featuring Suriya, Vijay Sethupathi, Aravind Swami, Parvathy and Siddharth on 3 March 2021, during the announcement of their original contents for the year.^[50] The series was scheduled to release in May 2021,^[51] but the makers postponed the release to August 2021, due to the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic with the rise of COVID-19 cases across Tamil Nadu,^[52] and Netflix too prioritised their commitments to release Jagame Thandhiram on 18 June 2021, which also being one of the factors for the series' delay.^[53] In June 2021, cinematographer P. C. Sreeram tweeted about the release of the series, but he deleted the tweet later.^[54]

The Indian Express and many other sources pointed that Navarasa will release on 6 August 2021,^[53][55] However, the makers later scheduled the release as 9 August 2021,^[56] due to Mani Ratnam and Jayendra's idea that the date coincided with the number "nine", which was the common factor for the series.^[14][13] Netflix later confirmed the previous release date of 6 August 2021.^[57][58] On 7 July 2021,^[59] as a part of the marketing campaign, Ananda Vikatan magazine released exclusive stills from the nine short films revealing the title and cast members.^[60][61] Further, the magazine had dedicated a special article for the series and the details about the anthology films for their issue dated 14 July 2021,^[62] which was released online on 8 July 2021.^[60][63] The official teaser of Navarasa directed and edited by Bharat Bala, which featured an original score by A. R. Rahman, released on 9 July 2021.^[57][64] The promo was cinematographed by Sudeep Elamon and Vijay Kartik Kannan and used Bolt High-Speed CineBot, Phantom Camera and Zeiss supreme prime lenses stereovision camera, to shoot the promo using motion capture technology.^[65][66][67] The official emoji for the series was released before the trailer launch on 27 July 2021, which is the first time for a South Indian web series.^[68][69]

The posters for each anthology were released before the official premiere, starting from 28 July 2021.^[70] Ahead of the film's screening, the title logo was showcased at Burj Khalifa, Dubai on 5 August 2021, which is the first time for a Tamil web series.^[71]

Reception

Anupama Chopra of Film Companion wrote, "It’s a gathering of greats but none of the films are flat-out brilliant."^[72]

Controversies

Summer of '92, the second film in the anthology, has been criticized for its elitist undertones^[73] and for portraying Dalits and Christian missionaries in poor light.^[74][75][76]

A newspaper poster for the seventh film Inmai, was opposed by Raza Academy for publishing a verse of the Quran.^[77][78]

References

External links

• Navarasa at IMDb
• Navarasa at Recaaps
• Navarasa at Bollywood Hungama