thehindu.com
Mali’s latest release, the song ‘Absolute’ has a personal and political message, both delivered with quiet strength
To say Maalavika Manoj’s new song is doing well, might be an understatement. On YouTube, ‘Absolute’ has been viewed 15,000 times in the five days since its premiere. On Twitter, it has been shared by the likes of AR Rahman and Anirudh Ravichander. Maalavika — or Mali, as the artiste is popularly known — is taking it in with a quiet sort of joy. When asked about the message of her song, however, she waxes eloquent.
“There is deliberate disconnect between the video and the lyrics,” she says over phone from Chennai, where the shoot for her video was wrapped up two weeks ago, “The lyrics are pretty political and on-the-nose: if you listen to it without watching the visuals, you can pass it off as a completely different song. I didn’t want to take a political stance video-wise. I wanted to leave it to the people who really want to know, to understand what it means,” she adds.
To say Maalavika Manoj’s new song is doing well, might be an understatement. On YouTube, ‘Absolute’ has been viewed 15,000 times in the five days since its premiere. On Twitter, it has been shared by the likes of AR Rahman and Anirudh Ravichander. Maalavika — or Mali, as the artiste is popularly known — is taking it in with a quiet sort of joy. When asked about the message of her song, however, she waxes eloquent.
“There is deliberate disconnect between the video and the lyrics,” she says over phone from Chennai, where the shoot for her video was wrapped up two weeks ago, “The lyrics are pretty political and on-the-nose: if you listen to it without watching the visuals, you can pass it off as a completely different song. I didn’t want to take a political stance video-wise. I wanted to leave it to the people who really want to know, to understand what it means,” she adds.
The song itself is an accusation against rulers-that-be whose “powers are absolute” — an accusation delivered in a quiet voice, cocooned by silken notes from the piano and the violin that leap to greater heights and volume than the singer-composer’s deliberately measured voice. The composition is an uplifting one; as polished as the set of video, shot at the Gymkhana Club with its velvet-lined staircases, gilded mirrors, arches and columns. Kudos to director Krishna Marimuthu for his dramatic use of light and bare space. At the visual level alone, the song can be seen as one of personal struggle, with a golden jacket waiting to be donned as a metaphor for self-confidence.
Keep your ears open, however, and it is difficult to ignore the lyrics. Lines about broken backs and sickles, and an insistent “we can say what we want to say” leap out, as relatable now as they were back in 2017 when Mali had first penned them. “The song is about the kind of power we give to the people we elect, who put on a different front when they want to get on our good side. And when they get power… well, absolute power corrupts absolutely,” she says. She challenges not just a political leaning, but the clamping down of voices in general.
The song has clearly struck a chord, and Mali is excited about one particular reaction more than the others. “Some of the earliest songs I knew were AR Rahman songs. And now, my song is being shared by him… it feels like life has come full circle. This is the best kind of validation I could get.”
