Snappy songs are livening up Kerala’s high-decibel campaign
s Kerala gets ready to vote on Friday, many of the candidates are using songs, spanning from rousing marching pieces and rap to lyrics set to popular lm numbers, to reach out to voters.
Many lyricists have been writing songs for their friends and acquaintances, irrespective of the political party they represent. Senior political leaders have also come out with verses for their candidates. Leading from the front is Communist Party of India (CPI) State secretary Binoy Viswam, who has written two songs for candidates of the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).
“Since my college days, I have written songs for protests and marches. This time, I wrote one based on the logo of the CPI,
‘Arivalum, kathirumaanu ente chinnam... [sickle and paddy spike is my symbol]’. That is when a mediaperson pointed out that it could only be used in four places in Kerala where CPI candidates are contesting,” says
Mr. Viswam. So, he wrote a second one,
‘Edathupaksham’, which exhorts voters to vote for the LDF and why. The song composed by Gayathri Nair is sung by Pandalam Balan.
Congress leader Pandalam Sudhakaran, a song writer himself, says the party has turned to “professional lyricists”. B.K.
Harinarayanan and Santhosh Varma are said to have written a few numbers for the Congress. Mr. Harinarayanan points out he has written several pieces for his friends and acquaintances, including for those in the LDF.
M.C. Couper’s rap for his friend Hibi Eden, elded by the Congress-led United
Democratic Front (UDF) in Ernakulam, has gone viral. Composed, scored and sung by
Mr. Couper, the song has become a rage among Mr. Eden’s supporters.
Another rap number that has gone viral is K.P. Aneesh’s ‘Vannotte, vannotte Vaseef vannotte (Let Vaseef win)’ for V. Vaseef, the State president of the Democratic Youth Federation of India and LDF candidate in Malappuram. He has also scored the music for the song. A CPI(M) functionary, he believes that the rap number will catch the attention of the youth. “I felt a change from the usual revolutionary songs will work among young voters. There is widespread discussion in Malappuram that the sitting MP did not make his stand clear when it came to matters such as triple talaq and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. I have used that in the song. With a few words, we have been able to convey what we want to say.”
In Thiruvananthapuram, where sitting MP Shashi Tharoor is ghting a three-cornered battle against Rajeev Chandrasekhar of the BJP and Pannian Ravindran of the LDF, the BJP has come up with several street plays and songs to draw the voters’ attention.
Tuned by music director Vinu Kiriyathu, the songs have been written by veteran theatre person Parmeswaran Kuriyathi. He says he has also written several street plays for the BJP to highlight the “failings of the State government and the UDF”.
Come April 26, and it will be clear whether the songs were indeed music to the ears of the voters.
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