Skin colour, racism: The Down Troddence returns with unapologetic track 'Ejjathi'

Imagine one of Mollywood's most talented musicians and a blockbuster movie director uniting for a metal music video. Sushin Shyam's Kannur-based band 'The Down Troddence', known for their political and socially-committed lyrics has collaborated with 'Manjummel Boys' director Chidambaram for their latest song 'Ejjathi', which will be premiering at an exclusive album listening event in Kochi on Sunday. 'Ejjathi' is the second track of their latest album AYAKTIHIS (As You All Know, This Is How It Is). They plan to release a total of 10 tracks under the same album.

Vocalist Munz, who has written the lyrics of the song said Chidambaram took the initiative to create the music video for 'Ejjathi' because he loved the song. "Chidambaram is a childhood friend. Chidambaram and Sushin (who is the keyboardist of the band) also have a connection since they both worked together in 'Manjummel Boys'. But he mainly did this video beyond the call of friendship because he genuinely loved the concept and the song. I remember us chilling together one day and I told him that we wanted to do a disturbing track in Malayalam that speaks out against caste politics and the dowry system. He was the one who suggested we make a music video. He and his team (cinematographer Jinto George and editor Vivek Harshan, among others) committed themselves to making this music video without monetary interest," he said.

Also, the band, which was formed in 2006 and became popular through their album 'How Are You? We Are Fine, Thank You', which released in 2014, wanted to involve bigger names for their comeback album 'AYAKTIHIS'. The team recently collaborated with Carnatic musician T M Krishna for 'Maharani', the first song in the album. The music video was shot by director Rajaram Rajendran. Munz said it was his band's long-standing dream to associate with T M Krishna, both for his music and his ideology. "Krishna and TDT may produce two different kinds of music, but politically we are aligned. I think he is a bigger metal head than any of us. We are people who sing our politics but he truly lives it," he said, adding that it was TDT's dream to associate with the late Zakkir Hussain.

'Wrote the lyrics within 30 minutes'

Munz said he wrote the lyrics of 'Ejjathi' within 20 minutes because the experience was extremely personal. "Ejjathi discusses casteism, colourism, shadism, and feminism. I am someone who personally felt the pain and the ostracism for being someone from the SC/ST community. So the feelings were deeply personal and I merely needed a medium to pour out those emotions," said Munz who believes people in Kerala are living in a facade and still discriminate against each other based on caste and colour, despite claiming high literacy. He even stated that some of his friends are living in a bubble and think that caste exists only when people speak about it. "They are not willing to look around them and see that discrimination is inherent. We need to break that and I want to do that through our songs," said Munz, who is one of the founders of the band.

The second half of the track has a feminist narrative and is drawn from the experience of his women friends when it comes to the marriage market. "Caste and feminism go hand in hand and this becomes more evident when people consider marriage. Colour Venam, Height Venam, PhD Padanam Venam, Allakaanum Thekkanum Ammayakku Oru Koottu Venam (We need a girl who has colour, height and a PhD. We want a woman who can help out our mother with washing and ironing. These lyrics are part of the song.)

'Ejjathi', interestingly, is the band's first Malayalam music track. Their previous tracks were all sung and written in English. "We felt issues that we discussed in the song were best expressed in Malayalam, though it was not a conscious decision," he said.

The music video was shot entirely in Kochi. "We had a tight schedule and had to wrap up the video within 48 hours. It was definitely an interesting experience. There was a fair share of challenges too," said Munz. The band is elated that a big label like Think Music has associated with a metal band. "Everyone is so fixated in releasing solo tracks because no one has the time to listen to an entire album. We are glad that a big label like Think Music was willing to release an entire album featuring only thrash metal," said Munz.