Art and music is equal to political power: Pa Ranjith

— Purnima.Sah@timesgroup.com

Dressed in identical grey suits, walked in 19 band members of ‘The Casteless Collective’ during their first performance, in the city recently. With thousands gathering to see their performance, the band members were taken aback having received such a warm welcome. The highlight were the lyrics that condemned honour killings in the name of caste pride, quota, discrimination, and manual scavenging. And these videos from the concert have only created ripples on the internet!

Arivarasu Kalainesan, an engineering graduate, is one of the lyricists and rapper in the band who authored 10 songs. “I am born and brought up in a slum. I have grown up watching the hardship of discrimination in the name of caste people go through. I used to read and write a lot of poems in school and when I joined college, I got the opportunity to write lyrics for our college band. I gave an audition at Neelam Cultural Centre and I was chosen to work with the band. It’s good to see how through music, people have understood a century old issue.”

And this wouldn’t have been possible without director Pa Ranjith, who always wanted to bring gaana on a big stage.

Says Ranjith, “For me, art and music is a political tool. I want to highlight social issues through art and music, issues that have been there since centuries but have failed to bring about a change. Gaana is in the blood of every child who is born in the slums of north Madras, the same locality where I come from. They are so skilled yet so far behind in many aspects of life. I want to change that.”

Ranjith’s organisation, Neelam Cultural Centre, collaborated with the label ‘Madras Records’ to form ‘The Casteless Collective’, inspired by a Tamil phrase ‘jaathi ilaathu Tamilargal’, used by Tamil anticaste activist and writer C Iyothee Thass. “This collective goes beyond the barriers of caste. And all of us have one aim — zero discrimination in the name of caste and religion though our tool — music and art,” added Ranjith.

That’s when he decided to collaborate with the music composer, Tenma. “We conducted workshops to understand and found a way to bring fusion of gaana, folk, hiphop, rap and rock. It’s more like creating a new genre of music, which has too many elements — powerful stories, percussion instruments like katte and chatti, which are played during funeral processions — and there are rappers and beat boxers. Everyone has an individual personality. I had to conduct them like a gospel choir, more like African gospel because there are too many of everything together,” says Tenma.

The artistes are not only from Tamil Nadu, but also Mumbai’s Dharavi’s rap trio, Dopeadelicz. This rap trio has also worked with Ranjith in Kaala.

Source: The Times of Inida dt 13.01.2018

Magizhini Manimaran's Kumki  Hit song soi soi

Two Million and fifty thousand visits to this youtube version of the song, and the visitors and viewers, admirers growing by the min  

Soi Soi - Full Song - Kumki

Pl click the following link to view the full song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XXFWy74Gxgk

to hear Mahilini's great voice,  the thirst for a novel music and new and powerful voice, this spectacular voice, as the song begins with a long melodies hymn

The Singer of this song "Soi Soi", Magizhini Manimaran is a Gem of voices, the hidden greatness of India, somehow such talents that is spread across the nation of India has never been discovered and shown to this world, but listening to Soi Soi first creates a Craving, it create a thirst and when you listening to her voice, it stirs and kind of kindles the very thoughts, for the first time listener or the repeat visitor,at 7 seconds after you play this video or audio and upto 22 second, within 15 seconds you will be totally mesmerized, that long protracted pre-hymn voice captures the sense of hearing and then she continues soi soi......a spectacular voice. She has been a inspirational folk singer for long, unfortunately the slave dalit musicians and movie artists never recognized and brought her to the forefront of music industry, it took a new comer musician D.Imman, the musician for the movie Kumbi in which Soi Soi is one of the several songs, you can hear all the songshere 
thank you Imman, 

D. Imman is an Indian film composer and singer. He has composed songs and provided background music for Tamil films. He did his schooling in Don Bosco, Egmore, Chennai and college in Pachaiyappa's College. Wikipedia

Albums: Mynaa

Film music credits: Naan Avanillai 2, Thamizhan, you stand taller than Illayaraja like musicians 
 (hindu societies procrastinators who betrayed the dalit society, how many of these gems are all over Tamil Nadu hidden from discovery, we need more Immans to ddiscover real singers, native, talented, original singers) in discovering and letting the world  to see this talent Magizhilini 
Soi Soi is a special and great song in this movie, I also like "Nee Yeppo Pulla" song also is good
Some latest news on Magizhilini:  

Magizhini Manimaaran Profile – Soi Soi Kaiyalavu – Kumki

She is Magizhini Manimaaran who sang the “Soi Soi” – scorching fast paced song in the recently released movie Kumki with music by Iman and lyrics by Yugabharathi. She has the magical voice which makes us to listen to the song many times. Magizhini Manimaran’s voice and Imman’s composition blend well. The ‘Soi Soi’ words are catchy.
Born in Vedanthangal and moved to Chennai for work after completing her 10th standard. She met her husband Manimaran in chennai who taught her music. She joined in his troop and started singing. She has not learned classical music but she sings all kinds of “Gramiya songs”. According to her “Thaalattu”  is the best melody. She is having two sons whom she wants to bring up as Doctor and Engineer but at the same time she wants them to concentrate in “Parayisai”. Now she is getting lot of  opportunities in Tamil movies after this musical hit “Soi Soi” 
Hindu News:-Drummer-woman makes it big
 “She was first a ‘parai’ drummers and later a singer. The ‘kalai kuzhu,’ right from its inception, worked on an ideology that they will never play for funerals — “Idhu saavukkana parai illai viduthalaikkana parai” (This ‘parai’ drumming is not for funeral but for liberation). Our performance always had a strong message that aimed at re-signifying ‘parai’ as a symbol of self-respect and assertion. Aadhikkam aliyattum, kizhiyattum paraigal alla, Indhiya saatheeya samoogam (Let the beating up of ‘parai’ destroy the dominance; let it break down not the parai but the Indian caste hierarchy),” he says. 

“The troupe performs for political and social conferences and for temple festivals of lineage gods and other traditional gods. Perhaps one of the oldest of the indigenous folk arts, ‘parai aattam’ embraces life in all its forms — birth, puberty, engagement, marriage and death. But, today, despite a rich legacy, ‘parai aattam’ has been pushed to the margins as a polluted form of art,” he says.

source: upliftthem.blogspot.in.