Every Onam season, there is one song that is celebrated by Malayalis across the world. This time, it is Jimikki Kammal from Lal Jose’s Velipadinte Pusthakam that has the world at its feet. The highly-contagious ‘jimikki fever’ has gripped the whole globe with Malayalis all over creating different spin-offs of the song as remix versions, trolls, dance videos and flash mobs. The latest entrants to the frenzy are Tamilians, who have joined the jimikki mania with parody videos, trolls and memes.
Still from the original jimikki song in Velipadinte Pusthakam.
It seems everyone is shaking their leg to the tune — from Onam celebrations at colleges, workplaces and various associations abroad to Mohanlal fans, little kids and even those at booze parties. Social media is lit with ‘jimikki’ references!
The craze is so strong that the video song from Velipadinte Pusthakam has crossed 80 lakh views. Jimikki Kammal, originally a popular folk song about a couple’s fight over an earring, was adapted into the movie as a campus song with just two lines from the original and the rest penned by Anil Panachooran.
Composer Shaan Rahman can’t hide his surprise and joy. “I’m overwhelmed by the response. It was planned as a favourite song of everyone in a college; there is always one such college song. The original Jimikki song was taken as a reference and scriptwriter Benny chettan (Benny P. Nayarambalam) asked me to work on that metre. But I found the song very catchy and decided to go with the first four lines. Anil chettan agreed to pen the rest. Thus, the song happened,” he says.
Shaan is happy that his song is trending this Onam too; last year, it was his own composition Thiruvaavani Raavu. “I don’t know what to say. This is my first collaboration with Mohanlal and Lal Jose. I am extremely happy about the response. It’s a great relief too because it was a huge responsibility and it feels nice,” he says.
Though the song and its signature moves started trending from day one of release, the fever spread when Mohanlal announced the Jimikki Dance Challenge that would get the chosen ones an opportunity to dance with the stars. All they had to do was to post a minute-long dance video with a hashtag. The challenge spread like wildfire.
Several videos — like the Mohanlal fans in Spadikam costume, Malayali mums in UAE sporting black shirts, mundu and jimikki, youngsters in Onam attire, naughty kids at school and a grandmother in chattem mundum — surfaced. Even Mohanlal’s son Pranav was seen grooving to the peppy number. However, there is one person whose life changed overnight with the song. Sheril G. Kadavan, a faculty at Indian School of Commerce, Kochi, who choreographed a video with her friend and colleague Anna George.
“We planned a flash mob with students during Onam celebrations to create a bond with them. We did a small rehearsal and performed at the auditorium. It was all fun, but never did we expect such a response,” recalls the 23-year-old Cherthala native.
Sheril’s photos are splashed all over the memes and trolls, mostly in Tamil ones. She also found a lot of fake profiles in her name. “Almost 98 per cent of the responses are positive. A lot of people, like Prasanna master, sent congratulatory messages. As for the fake profiles, I have reported most of them,” says Sheril, a trained classical dancer.
She has started getting movie offers, which she would love to take up if interesting roles come. Thanks to the Jimikki fever!
