Amid all the controversy about a post he wrote on the discrimination in Malayalam cinema, actor Neeraj Madhav has come out with a rap song, which has no connection to any of this.
A fun little song, less than four minutes long, ‘Panipaali’ is written and performed by Neeraj with the beats done by Arcado and the music mastered by Ribin Richard.
About a man finding it hard to sleep in the night, the song is visualised in graphics by Spacemarley. You see a guy, much like Neeraj, in his home clothes complete with a red cap and red shades, trying to go to sleep and wishing there was someone to sing him a lullaby.
“Aye aye oh pani paali lo raree raram padi urakkan aarumillallo,” goes the chorus, meaning, “I am in trouble, there is no one to sing me to sleep.”
The lyrics laced with humour are about the man fearing ghosts if he turned off the lights or removed his bed cover. What if there is a monster under his bed, the one from the movie he watched yesterday, he asks, as he is tense to even get a glass of water or go to the bathroom. But then there's a knock on the door and the visitor says she is his neighbour Sarala’s daughter, who has come to sing him to sleep. Delighted with little heart shaped symbols jumping out of him, the man opens the door and finds a woman whose feet do not touch the ground – classic presentation of women ghosts in fiction, of yakshi, who drinks blood.
But the woman says she’s had her fill for the night and just came by hearing that he wanted someone to sing him to sleep. The man says fine, but if she has to kill him, she has to first put him to sleep -- at least then, he would get some shut-eye.
The song ends with the dad waking the man up by noon.
This is not Neeraj’s first tryst with rap. Neeraj, also known for his dancing skills, has released rap songs before under the title ‘JUNGLE SPEAKS ft.’
Watch: