Folk artistes collaborate for a music video to spread awareness on virus

Artistes from various folk and classical forms like parai, silamabam, folk music, gaana and Bharatanatyam have come together and composed and choreographed a music video to fight the novel coronavirus.

Titled United to Heal — Coronavai Jeyippom, the music video is produced by Aanmajothi, the cultural wing of Saraswathi Vidyalaya in collaboration with Chennai UCCN (UNESCO Creative Cities Network).

“All over the world, artistes are using their respective mediums to spread socially relevant, positive messages. We also wanted to contribute something to cheer up people during a crisis like this. So, we roped in various aristes from the city to show that through arts, we will be united against corona.

Chennai UCCN also supported us in creating the video,” says a member of Aanmajothi. Before the lockdown was announced, the artistes got together and conceptualised the visuals. The Tamil song was written and sung by gaana singer Guru Aiyadurai. The video starts with dancers performing their respective art forms and then Guru starts singing the song in Tamil. The song starts like this: “Our country will continue to prosper and will wipe out the dreaded disease. Our India — a gem among nations of the world, corona — you shall be driven from this Earth. Our people need not fear anything, we are resilient to any challenge...” The three and a half minute video has subtitles in English, Hindi, Spanish and French.

“This is an interesting project and we are more than happy to collaborate with Aanmajothi. After the artistes met before the lockdown, they started practising from their home and shared the videos via WhatsApp. Two days later, we all met again and shot the music video. During the shoot, we also made sure that everybody was maintaining physical distancing and all the instruments were sanitised before and after the use,” says a representative of Chennai UCCN.

The organiser adds, “Rather than picking a single dance form, we thought it would be better if we can bring various art forms together for the video. The video aims to showcase how all the folk forms can unite and support each other and spread positivity. Collaborations like this will show that art communities can stand together during tough situations.”