Singer Arya Dhayal’s new song video ‘Angane Venam’ is a catchy call against gender discrimination

Singer Arya Dhayal’s catchy new video ‘Angane Venam’ for the Women and Child Development Department (WCD) has received over 1.5 lakh views and counting in just one day on YouTube. The song also garnered a few thousand likes and shares on the department’s social media accounts.

Composed and sung by Arya, with lyrics by Sasikala V. Menon, the song, with a folksy touch, is a call against letting gender discrimination slide by. It asserts women’s right to eat, dress, study and stand on their own feet – in short, make their own choices in life and be themselves without being judged for what they do. Times have changed and so have women, so see them for what they are, it goes.

Arya says she is excited by the response to the track, also her first original composition in Malayalam. “I have been getting many calls in support, especially from girls who said they could relate to it. I’m super-excited by the attention it has elicited.”

Great opportunity

Arya has been following the department’s Instagram page and when WCD department director T.V. Anupama reached out, asking if she wanted to be part of the project, she jumped at the opportunity. “Never have I been part of such an experience.”

Since the singer does not write Malayalam lyrics usually, she reached out to Ms. Menon whom she knew well and they worked seamlessly to translate what Arya had in mind into tuneful words. Ms. Menon, who has worked with greats such as composer G. Devarajan, had half the lyrics ready overnight. As they sat down to finish the rest, the tune just came to Arya. “I wanted the song to have a folky flavour but a modern idiom too, so that women of my age as well as teenagers could relate to it,” she says. Arranged by Varkey, it was recorded at a home studio.

Excellent medium

The WCD department has also come in for praise for the attempt. Ms. Anupama says the department aims at connecting with the people through social media and mass media, and feels that a music video is an excellent medium to reach out to them.

She says Arya is popular with the younger audiences and hence was an easy choice for the initiative. “She is not only a singer but also a composer and is involved in all aspects of music. A woman composing a song for other women and singing her heart out also resonate with the masses,” says Ms. Anupama.