Kottayam: In an era ruled by film music, Nandagovindam Bhajans has pulled off a quiet coup, turning devotional songs into crowd favourites. Emerging from the village of Nattassery in Kottayam, the ensemble is now soaring high in the music sky. Fresh in approach and rich in emotion, their bhajans cut across age barriers, striking a chord with Gen Z listeners too.

The song most frequently requested by audiences wherever they perform is “Radhathan Premathodaano Krishnaa.” Their concerts are musical collages that fuse Sopana sangeetham, film melodies, Kathakali music, and classical traditions. Each piece is delivered with flair, preserving the soul and essence of the original compositions

From Karkidaka Bhajan Sangham to Nandagovindam
What the world now knows as Nandagovindam Bhajans began its journey 25 years ago as a 'Karkidaka Bhajan Sangham' in Nattassery. During the Malayalam month of Karkidakam, the group would move from home to home and temple to temple, filling evenings with devotional music.

The course of the ensemble changed when one of its senior members, Elangoor Rajendra Panicker, lost his eyesight following illness. When the Karkidaka season ended that year, the group chose not to disband. Instead, it continued performing bhajans for Panicker’s sake, with the modest earnings from these programmes helping to meet his medical expenses.

“From the start, our idea was to give him a space where he could spend his time happily,” recalls R Hariraj, who has led the group since its inception. Rajendra Panicker passed away two years ago, but his son, Unnikrishnan, carries on his legacy, serving as a key vocalist in the ensemble and also as its manager.

According to him, most members of the bhajan group have been with the ensemble for 17 to 18 years. “Some of our singers have secured jobs in Dubai and Canada, yet they make it a point to return whenever we perform on major stages in Kerala. Everyone in the group follows a common dress code, and nowadays, others are also buying and wearing outfits inspired by the Nandagovindam Bhajans style from our counters,” he says.

Naveen Mohan, one of the group’s vocalists, shared a deeply moving story of a woman in Ottappalam who lost her young son. Every day, she listens to one of the troupe’s songs on YouTube dozens of times: “Kanna neeyennum kavarnnenno thoovenna…”. “When we realised that it is this very line in the song that helps her rise above her grief, it touched me profoundly,” he says. “I am also reminded of a message from a Malayali priest in the US, who wrote that listening to our bhajans brings back vivid memories of the village pond and the temple back home.”

Eminent lyricist Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri also attests to the therapeutic power of the group’s music. “The songs of Nandagovindam Bhajans are a form of musical therapy, a source of profound consolation. Even in my present condition, when I cannot sit or stand for long, time simply slips away when I listen to their music. Their presentation is in perfect tune with the times, drawing young people closer to bhajans. Pure music is what this age needs the most. What they are doing is nothing short of an act of cleansing the land itself,” he says.

The journey of Nandagovindam Bhajans
The story of Nandagovindam Bhajans began in 2001, when the ensemble performed under the name Sreedurga Bhajan Samithi. It was in 2004, during a Saptah Yajna event at the Sreedurga Bhagavathi Temple in Arumanur Vadakkumkur palace, that the group adopted the name Nandagovindam Bhajans, a title coined by Hariraj.

Over the years, the group has cultivated a unique identity. In temples, they perform bhajans under the name Sandranandam, while in other public venues their performances are presented as Bhajan Connect. The ensemble brings together talent from diverse walks of life, from government officials to professionals based in the Gulf and Canada. 

The ensemble’s vocalists include R Hariraj, Naveen Mohan, and E P Unnikrishnan (all from Eanchal), along with Praveen Anand (Parambuzha), Sreelal Venu (Lakkattur), Manumohan (Pallikkathodu), Abhijith Radhakrishnan, Harikrishnan (Thiruvanchur), and Harikrishnan (Mannar).

Supporting them is a talented team of instrumentalists, including Vishnu Thiruvanchur (Mridangam), Jayakrishnan Meenadom and Akhil Kumaranalloor (Violin), Siddharth Shankar Thiruvanchur (Keyboard), Sreedarshan Thrissur (Keyboard), Rajesh Jayan Thiruvananthapuram (Harmonium), Vipin Krishna Vaikom (Rhythm Pad), and Appu Saravanan Thiruvanchur (Dholak).