“We are happy that Trivandrum is happy,” says the team that finally made a ‘Happy’ video for the city. Beaming from ear to ear, a group of Loyolites, comprising students and former students of Loyola School, who came up with the idea to make a ‘Happy’ video for the city, says they never expected it do so well.
‘Trivandrum is Kidilam happy’, which was posted on May 24 on YouTube, has crossed 10,000 views. The remarks for the post range from the ecstatic to the downright funny, but all have nice things to say for the young team that worked behind the five-minute video that is also a collage of the iconic places in Thiruvananthapuram.
“Bharath Ajith Sreenivasan, a former Loyolite, had come down to the city for his break and he mentioned how the happy video was being shot in Kolkata, where he is studying now. Then we wondered why no one had shot one for the city. That is how the whole concept began,” says Thomas S. Thelly, a student of Mar Baselios College of Engineering and Technology. They got in touch with likeminded friends and chalked out a list of places to be covered and also planned a storyboard for the video.
“It is a day in the city, from 5 a.m. to around 8 p.m. and we began the shot from Kovalam at dawn,” says Bharath K.K.B.
A Facebook group of seven got to work. Soon friends and friends of friends got into the act, with all of them dancing, clapping, doing somersaults, jumping and diving because they are happy.
Choreographer Arvind J.J. had his work cut out because some of the youngsters were camera shy and had to be coaxed to shed their nervousness and be natural.
So there is this dude who jumps off a train at the Central railway station and breaks into a jig while many others break into a dance in the museum grounds and the zoo, Kovalam and Connemara market, while a few guys ride on bikes, zipping by some well known monuments and places in the city.
Then there is that fisherwoman in Connemara market with a big smile shyly giving a thumbs up while a goldsmith does the same with a beaming face. KL 01 gets a close-up to signify the capital city. The Secretariat and the Legislative Assembly find a place in the video and so does Valiyathura pier from where a group of swimmers dive into the Arabian sea.
A serene dusk is framed against the Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple. Can a video on the city be complete without the Palayam mosque and church in the frame? Both the places of worship are included in the film.
“How can we leave out parottas and fresh drinks? We have featured a man selling roasted groundnuts, popular eateries such as Ambrosia and Kethel Chicken in Chala …,” says Bharath.
The makers have captured the joie de vivre and exuberance that is the essence of the Pharrel Willams’ ‘Happy’ song.
Bharath, Atul Prasad and Vishnu S. were the cameramen while Bharath was in charge of editing, mixing and VFX. Lending them support in every way were Govind G. Nair and Siddarth S. Rajiv. “It was fun. Even commuters and random people were game for the shoot,” says Bharath.
The happiness spreads
Pharrell Williams, an American rapper, record producer, musician and fashion designer, was nominated for the Oscar award this year for his single ‘Happy’ from the film Despicable Me 2 . The song was an instant hit and it topped at number one in the United States and 23 other countries. Some 800 local versions of the song were created in different parts of the world, with people adding their own spin to the video. Kolkata, Chennai, Kochi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Coimbatore are some of the Indian cities that are already ‘Happy’.
La fest beckons
Towards the end of the film, the camera pans on to Loyola School and an audio clip has a one-liner about the Loyola School and its festival, La Fest. “That was an excerpt from the inaugural speech made by our former Principal Father Anikuzhy. We felt that bit about the 16-year fete of the 50-year-old school was relevant. After, all La fest is the one of the best in Kerala,” say Cherian and Reuel Wilson, two of the organisers of La fest 2014, which is on June 28. Bharath K.K.B. had been in charge of multimedia during La Fest 2013 and his assistant was Subin Edward Jude. During the shot, the chief turned to his assistant for help. In the meantime, Subin was busy with work for La fest. “He was distracted. That was when we came up with the idea of linking the La Fest to the video,” says Reuel.
And so it ends with a tagline ‘A million stars but one super nova’ which is on June 28. No prizes for guessing which event we are talking about. But this is surely a group of stars who have put the city on the ‘happy’ list.
