Tamil heavy metal band Jhanu to perform in Thiruvananthapuram

Chennai-based metal band Jhanu, founded by Jhanu Chanthar, will perform songs from their album Achamillai during their concert.

Jhanu Chanthar, the founder of Chennai-based metal band Jhanu, used to dislike his name growing up. He was often picked on by his classmates as they sang the song ‘Janu meri jaan’, from the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Shan (1980) around him. However, years later, the guitarist’s brother and the band’s drummer, Udhay Bharath accidentally filled in the name Jhanu in the field for the band’s name instead of its members’ names. That name has been source of pride for the artiste since then.

The metal band founded in 2011 is set to perform in Thiruvananthapuram on February 2, as they gear up to tour with their successful debut album Achamillai. The album, named after one of the seven songs in the collection, was launched in 2023.

The collective performs in Tamil, as an ode to their culture and language. Apart from the founding members Jhanu and Uday, the ensemble has Harkirat Singh Sangha on the bass, and Lawrence Ramu and Bharath Shankar as vocalists.

Jhanu has played the instruments for ‘Nerupu da’, a hit track from the 2016- Rajinikanth movie, Kabali. The band has also worked on Kaala with the actor. Individually, Jhanu has composed the music for The Hunt for Veerappan (2023), a web series.

“After Kaala, I knew I had to step out of my comfort zone and refocus on what my band truly represented—the reason we started playing in the first place. ‘Puzhudhi’ (a 2023 Coke Studio Tamil production) and music direction for The Hunt for Veerappan pushed our sound and philosophy in a whole new direction,” says Jhanu.

Following the release of their album, the band had a launch tour in Mexico where they performed 11 shows including one extra show, as per the request of the Indian Embassy officials in Mexico who invited them to perform. “The experience was amazing. After every song, we would hear the chant ‘otra’ in Spanish, asking us to sing another song. We loved playing in all the stages there,” says Udhay.

Having been inspired by the metal bands in Chennai of the early 2000s, the band credits their growth to guitarists like Steve Watz, who passed away in 2023. “He was the man who made us write our own songs. There used to be a lot of cover bands back then, but, writing original songs was a big thing,” says Udhay.