Ever since a friend of Facebook introduced me to this Tamil song about a week back, I have been playing it on loop. I find it utterly fascinating and so addictive! The song is Enjoy Enjaami by singer Dhee ft. rapper Arivu, which now has upward of 37 million views since its release less than two weeks ago. The song is lavishly shot with arresting visuals and a completely irresistible musical track. Beyond the pop culture significance, the song has a sobering historical relevance. No wonder Amul based its latest creative on Enjoy Enjaami.
People have really been enjoying the song; ‘jamming to it’ as the ad creatively puns upon the track name. Amul is ‘dhee’ best butter because the song is performed by Dhee. The song has just a tremendous impact – the visuals are technically and aesthetically top notch. The voices are very, very distinctive and powerful, and the orchestration and composition are outstanding.
Dhee is a playback singer based in Chennai and she has already made waves with another madly catchy song. She voiced the song Rowdy Baby which was the first Indian film song to cross 1 billion views on YouTube. Enjoy Enjaami is written by rapper Arivu, who is also seen in the video and it is produced by Santhosh Narayanan.
The song was released on A R Rahman’s Majja platform which aims to take South Asian music from emerging artistes to the world. This is a music-centric platform that creates a stage for and amplifies hidden talents. Rahman hopes that Majja will help create jobs, promote tourism, create art centres, performance halls and encourage alternate entertainment.
I dare you to watch this song without involuntarily responding and moving to the melody, the voices, rhythm and the cadence. It is instantly captivating. However as captivating is the sobering history behind the song. The song is written by Arivu for his grandmother Valliamma. It is the story of indentured plantation workers transported to Sri Lanka, who was then returned to a land they had been dispossessed from.
In 19th century colonial India, large numbers of poor Tamilian workers were taken to Sri Lanka to work on coffee, tea and rubber plantations, to clear forests, for construction and so on. When their labours were no longer needed, their presence in Sri Lanka became superfluous and these people were brought back to their homes and basically abandoned there without thought for their future. They became a dispossessed people with no land and skills that had little relevance in their native villages. In this sense, the song tells us about a history of exploitation that few of us know about. In the end, however, this song is a celebration of life, earth and ancestors, says singer Dhee.
The song is deeply political in the way that rap music typically is, and which Arivu’s work always is, he says. The song speaks about the story of oppression that his grandmother narrated; Valliamma being a descendant of those same plantation workers. In a wider context, the song is about all oppressed communities and about poor and disenfranchised people everywhere. According to Arivu, most of his work is political and he usually gets a lot of flak for it. However, Enjoy Enjaami has received positive reactions across the board – one only has to listen in to know why.
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