Corporate life can be a bit humdrum, especially for those artistic souls stuck in cubicles in front of the computer all day long. A bunch of youngsters, all of them schoolmates/collegemates from Thiruvananthapuram, have musically parodied their experiences and the realities of life in the corporate world, in a rather surrealistic music video in Tamil, Komali - The Mistfits Anthem . The video, released on YouTube a week or so ago, has already crossed 16,000 views.
“It’s a subject that many of us can relate to because there are many misfits in the corporate world, hanging on to their jobs because of circumstances rather than an interest in adding to corporate coffers with their blood, sweat and tears; they would rather be elsewhere, letting loose their creative side. The moment they start to think and act different they are labelled as troublemakers and misfits,” says Shersha Sherief.
An IIM graduate and business consultant at an MNC, Shersha has directed and acted in the video, in collaboration with software engineer Sidhartha Pradeep and film editor Appu Bhattathiri, his mates from St. Thomas Central School, among others, under the banner of Filmy Engineers. The trio are part of the same team of College of Engineering, Trivandrum students who made the short film CET Life (2012), one of the first shorts in Malayalam to go viral.
“It’s our lives that you see unfolding in Komali . We ourselves, well, Sidhartha and I, at least, are examples of misfits. To be honest, I constantly dream of acting and directing. Sidhartha, who has composed the music for this video and for the hit Tamil short film Mounam Sollum Varthaigal as well , wants to be a musician and director, Luke Jose, our cinematographer, is a college dropout who chose to make his dreams of wielding the camera come true...” says Shersha, now based in Bengaluru.
The six-minute song features Shersha as any and every misfit, symbolised by creepy clown face paint, navigating his way through the “mundane and the confusion of life,” wanting desperately to break free.
“We didn’t want to go for a straightforward storyline but attempted a multi-layered, almost abstract narrative. We are all Malayalis but decided to make the video in Tamil because we wanted the subject to have a larger reach,” explains Shersha. The song has been sung by Nithin Raj and it ends with a cool rap number that the well-known singer and RJ himself composed.
“I loved the concept of the video for I too know the hassle of being an artist stuck inside four walls. Also, I have many friends who live a life of routine. I enjoy listening to and ‘spitting’ out the cocktail of words, lyrics and poetry that is rap and thought it would be nice to end the song with a piece of authentic rap,” says Nithin.
Komali can be watched on Muzk247’s YouTube Channel. The team is already at work on a three-episode short film series for YouTube.