Come November and most men and little children in the state get ready for the annual Mandala period pilgrimage to Sabarimala. The visual is no different here — a little seven-year-old girl, her father and her 57-year-old grandmother are getting the ‘Irumudi Kettu’ ready for their pilgrimage to Sabarimala. Watching all this from the first floor balcony of the tharavadu is the girl’s thirty-something mother longing for her turn to visit Lord Ayyappa. The mother’s longing and waiting take the form of some beautiful verses beginning with the words Ennenikkekum enn Aiyya, Punyamam Ponmalayeranulla Bhagyam…in the music video Thaarakam. The mother is enacted to perfection by actor Krishna Praba who has also sung the song. The lyrics and direction of the music video is by Hari P. Nair.
Devotional songs dedicated to Lord Ayyappa are a dime a dozen. But Hari, who always looks out for a unique theme, realized that most of the videos were male-centric, with men singing and acting in them. So he decided to direct a music video from a woman’s point of view. Hence, Thaarakam has a thirty-something woman voicing out her feelings for the Lord and her acceptance of the wait to see the Lord. Hari says, “There is already a debate raging about letting women enter the holy shrine or not and there are campaigns like Ready to Wait and Ready to Go. Without getting involved in any of this or taking sides, I wanted my protagonist to express her feelings from a woman’s point of view. Krishna Praba was apt because she can sing and act and once she heard the idea, she was keen.”
The song proceeds to show Krishna Praba making food for the members visiting the shrine as well as taking care of their needs. After they leave for Sabarimala, she spends time praying to Lord Ayyappa and makes it clear that she is ready to wait for her turn to visit the Lord. The music video then takes a thirty-year leap to show Krishna Praba, now in her sixties, getting ready to visit Sabarimala with her granddaughter. Her daughter, now in her thirties, watches them from the same balcony and waits for her turn. The circle of life thus continues for the female members. The music video is of four-minute duration and was shot at the Pichakassery Illam in Thrissur. Hari has also directed some other Ayyappa devotional music albums earlier and he is scripting for a film Panchavarna Thatha that will be Ramesh Pisharody’s directorial debut.
