A team of six from Kerala's Kochi cooked up a catchy Malayalam song as the soccer jamboree kicked off worldwide. From left: Sreejith Ram, Joshi, Dhanush, Sijo M Joy, Sarath Mohan, Devakrishnan, Sahad, Prasanth NP and Vysagh TB.The world soccer body, FIFA, had released an official theme song in the run up to the 2018 World Cup, which is now on. When Kerala is not lagging in soccer fever, isn't it apt that there should be a theme song for the quadrennial soccer event in Malayalam? This is exactly what a team of six from Kerala's Kochi cooked up as the soccer jamboree kicked off worldwide. The catchy Malayalam song has took the internet by storm within hours of its release.
The song that starts like “Vannallo kalpanthin mamankam (Here's the festival of football)” is peppy enough to gear up the spirit of football fans in Kerala. Written and composed by young media entrepreneur Sarath Mohan, the video was ideated and released within just two days!
“We have released themed promo songs for almost all the popular arts and sports fairs Keralites are passionate about,” said Mohan, who is the chief executive officer of 'She Medias,' an initiative to encourage young media aspirants. “Our theme songs for Indian Super League (ISL) 2018, Kochi Muziris Biennale 2017 and FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017 performed well on internet but all of them were pre-planned ventures. The latest theme song for FIFA world cup 2018 was ideated and shot within just two days.”
It was Anil, a friend of Sarath who works with Manorama News, who came up with the idea of releasing a Malayalam theme song for the 2018 world cup . Excited by the idea, Sarath penned the lyrics of 'Vannallo kalpanthin mamankam..' immediately and handed over to his filmmaker friend Sreejith Ram. Sreejith, with his experience of directing some short films that were popular on social media, planned to put together an appealing video within short hours. Mohan composed a tune for his lyrics which was orchestrated by Dhanush. Young singer Devakrishnan joined him to sing the moving sound track.
Mohan told Onmanorama that his video has focused upon four leading players Lionel Messi, Christiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Mohamed Salah because Keralites are more drawn towards players than teams. “Kerala's football fan-base is polarised between players, not countries or clubs. So if one expects a promo song to be conquer the hearts of Keralites, one should feature all their favourite players and cheer for them. That is why our video focuses mainly on the four leading players,” he reasoned.
The Malayalam theme song for FIFA 2018 was officially released on June 14, the opening day of the event, through the Facebook page of She Medias. It was viewed by thousands within hours. The galvanizing music video which has the visuals of historic moments from past world cups, has been shared over by hundreds on social media.
Commenting on the response their video gained, Mohan said the unexpected massive response shows the soccer spirit of Keralites. “For Malayalis, football is in their blood. This response is indeed a huge encouragement for young media aspirants,” he said.
The video was edited by Peter Sajan and the camera was donned by Vysagh TB.
