Meet the Instagrammers who recreate Tamil song recordings with a hilarious twist
If you are a fan of Tamil film music, it is likely that questions like these might have crossed your mind. How and why did music composer Imman and lyricist Viveka think the words ‘Durukku Thakita Durukku Thakita’ would fit into the folk number ‘Adichithooku’ in Ajith and Nayanthara starrer Viswasam? Why did singer Unnikrishnan opt to sing Deva’s composition ‘Nilavai Kondu Vaa’ in a flat tone while singer Anuradha Sriram’s portions of the song are high on expressions, laced with sensuality? Why did Harris Jayaraj intentionally add ‘ahaan’ after every line of the ‘Pala Palakura’ song in Suriya’s Ayan? Did the background singers in ‘Dheera Dheera’ track from KGF pour their hearts out for a roaring chorus sequence only for it to be immediately followed by singer Ananya’s calming and melodious voice?
Even if you had pondered about the choices made by these Kollywood composers, you perhaps never came up with theories that perfectly explain the parts of the compositions that stick out like a sore thumb. Enter popular Tamil Instagrammers from team Vikkals, who pick such instances from songs and create reels imagining and enacting to comic effect how things must have gone down at the recording studio.
In one of their latest reels they demonstrate how Unnikrishnan was down with fever on the last day of ‘Nilavai Kondu Vaa’ recording. Why the words ‘Durukku Thakita’ in ‘Adichithooku’? As per the Vikkals team, the makers wanted to add visuals of Ajith riding a bike to play correspondingly with the words Durukku Thakita. And as for the curious case of placement of the term ‘Ahaan’ in ‘Pala Palakura’, the creators think that composer Harris Jayaraj was feeding snacks to singer Hariharan and the ‘ahaan’ was his way of saying no.
Needless to say, these hilarious reels have caught the attention of movie buffs who have been heaping praise on the team for coming up with quirky and creative behind-the-scenes videos. “We started making reels as a last resort because we had a YouTube channel where some videos had raked in over a million views but also some that did not even cross 10,000 views. We could not figure out why because the way content goes viral can be pretty random. So, we decided to post a reel on Instagram everyday for a hundred days, come what may. We had different templates or types of video ideas, and this recording studio video was one of them. We started with a reel about the ‘Jolly O Gymkhana’ song from Beast,” says stand-up comedian and theatre artist Vikram Arul, who started the Vikkals channels in the year 2019. Coimbatore-based creators Hari Muniyappan and Sibi Jayakumar, who had worked with other YouTube channels like Pa Ranjith’s Neelam Social among others, joined the Vikkals team in the consecutive years.
Speaking to TNM about the making of the reels, Hari quips, “We go to our friend’s recording studio whenever it is free and film the reels there. We shoot a good number of reels at a stretch, or we choose concepts that we can finish shooting within an hour. The editing process usually takes longer and sometimes there are disturbances in the sound and we have to do retakes. But it’s a fun process. As for the brainstorming part, we mostly improvise. It is a collaborative process.”
Their reels have garnered praise from actor SJ Suryah, composer GV Prakash, singer Benny Dayal, actor Vinodhini, stand-up comic SA Aravindh, and singer Tippu who had commented on the reel about the ‘Aathadi’ song which is sung by him.
“We weren’t quite sure about the reach the reels would have. Take the reel about the recording of the song ‘Aathadi’, for example. We had so many doubts about its performance since Anegan had released in 2015 and we were wondering if people will even remember the song. But that reel was widely circulated. Similarly, we did not expect celebrities to respond to our reels. It is sweet that they have been supportive and taken the jokes very sportively,” says Vikram.
Apart from reels about song recordings, several other videos have been posted on the Instagram handles of the creators as well as on the Vikkals YouTube handle. Their latest reel, which recreates student performances to the song ‘Barso Re’ / 'Nannare' from Guru at school annual day celebrations, invoked nostalgia and persuaded many viewers to take a trip down memory lane.
“I have spoken about subjects like casteism and sexism in my videos. We have touched upon strong themes even in our previous YouTube videos. You will find a plethora of content on the channel but as far as these recording videos are concerned, the intent is to not hurt or belittle the Tamil composers and singers. We’re conscious about not showing them in a negative light while having a humorous take about some parts of their compositions,” Vikram explains.
The team also includes Athithya, who handles DOP and editing for the videos.
“Since these videos are working for us, we want to post more on the same lines but also want to ensure that it does not become repetitive. I personally don’t prefer selecting a niche. It also comes down to pandering to the artistic ego and zeal that creators have to explore varied areas. So, we will also do other things but I don’t think we’re going to stop doing reels anytime soon.” Vikram adds.