On a song that overcomes odds

Dreaming is easy; we all dream of the possible and the impossible. Some dreams are so powerful that they stay with us long after we wake up and set out to impact our lives — sometimes against surmountable odds. Sandhya Raghav’s story is a case in point. She has been battling a debilitating kidney disease for the past eight years, which required her to have dialysis on a regular basis in order to sustain life. The cost of the dialysis treatment was, no doubt, a huge challenge for Sandhya, but she did not let the costly treatment rob her of her will to live and found a means to earn money.

Sandhya, for the past couple of years, has been singing as part of a troupe, earning money to fund her dialysis treatment. Singing has always been a passion and a source of strength for the young girl, who has sung at several stages. Singing helps alleviate her pain to a certain extent, infusing energy in her.  

Though Sandhya has been singing for a long period, she had been harboring a secret desire — to sing for a film. And then, the universe conspired to help her in the form of director Fazil Basheer. He decided to make the young singer’s wish come true by giving her an opportunity to sing for the film 3 KM that he had written and is directing. He says, “I wanted to turn her dream into reality and when the opportunity presented itself, I offered it to her.” Sandhya recorded the song just before her surgery was scheduled and came to the recording studio directly from the hospital. The doctors, seeing her happiness and excitement, did not want to curtail her and allowed Sandhya to follow her dream. She came to the recording with a cannula on her  wrist. Fazil, who is the managing director of the troupe that Sandhya is a part of, adds, “I did not think this would be her ‘get well soon’ present because the recording took place just before her surgery!”

The song is written by Jaison T. John and composed by Fahadh