From private songs to the stage, Hari Kadhaa finally lets his music out

Hari Kadhaa, an independent Indian singer-songwriter, musician, and storyteller, does not want to pretend he has figured himself out. He is interested in the messy territory between what we feel and what we know how to say. This weekend, he is bringing that territory to life with the show, Hari Kadhaa Live.

Chennai singer-songwriter Hari Kadhaa turns seven years of stories into music

He does not invent elaborate fictional worlds and then write characters into them. His songs begin much closer to home. That instinct began in an unlikely place: a school function and a parody about mushroom puffs. Their principal, rather unexpectedly, encouraged them to perform it. It gave Hari his first taste of what happens when something written privately finds an audience.

Hari has been writing since 2018, with artistes such as Kaber Vasuki and Siennor among his inspirations. Yet for years, he hesitated to put his own work out into the world. The problem was not a lack of songs. If anything, there were too many. He wanted the right instruments. The right equipment. The right studio. The right version of everything.

“The perfectionist in me kept waiting,” he admits. “I wanted to give my songs the best possible sound before putting them out into the world.” Then he turned 25. Waiting for perfection suddenly seemed less useful than simply beginning. After moving to Chennai and deciding to take music seriously this year, Hari found himself surrounded by independent artistes and collaborators. He released two tracks and is now preparing his third, Kaatril Vandhu, while simultaneously putting together a fully independent concert. “All of this has happened within a single year, which still feels unreal to me,” he says. “Maybe Chennai is unreal too, I guess!”

That sense of discovery will shape the upcoming performance. Most of the songs in the set have never been released. He plans to perform two released tracks alongside 12 to 13 songs he has written across the past seven years. But rather than simply moving from one song to the next, the evening has been designed as a narrative.

Hari describes his sound as “me trying to make sense of life through music.” It is an appropriately unfinished definition, and that is the appeal.

And then there is Kaatril Vandhu, which arrives this week. The song follows a man who has spent much of his life as a giver and a lover, but has been single long enough to become comfortable with himself. There is happiness in that solitude. Yet somewhere along the way, he begins to miss the person he was when he had someone to love.

One lyric captures that contradiction: “Kadhal thedi poga, thembey enakkillai, kadhal venam endru sollavum manadhillai.” There is an even more tender image at the centre of the song. “In my heart, there is enough rain to make a million flowers bloom,” Hari explains.

That is what makes the song more interesting than a straightforward longing-for-love ballad. Its protagonist has not run out of love. Quite the opposite. He has an abundance of it. What he does not know is whether there is someone, somewhere, who will receive it. By the end of the night, he hopes people leave with something simple but increasingly precious: hope. The belief that life might still surprise them. That love can return when it is least expected. That something beautiful might still be waiting around the corner.

Rs 299 onwards. On August 15. At 6 pm. At Aura Studios, T Nagar.

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