Techies retrieve the Eenam of Onam

KOCHI: With Malayalis exploring new ways to celebrate the brand ‘Onam,’ fading away are the nostalgic memories of the harvest festival. One such memory is the festival songs usually released during Onam season.Till late 90s, Tharangini Music used to launch Onam songs, which are still cherished by many. Later, festival songs paved the way for comedy albums like ‘De Maveli Kombathu’ and ‘Onathinidakku Puttukachavadam'.However, trying to retrieve the glorious ages of those nostalgic songs are a group of Malayalis who are working in Bangalore. ‘Onam with Eenam’ is the project of a couple of such music enthusiasts who wish to revive the music that was once part of our tradition and defined our cultural heritage. The first album was launched in 2009 which was a huge success in the audio blogging sphere. The second album, released in 2010, has also captured the minds of many music listeners on the internet.The highlight of this year’s ‘Onam with Eenam,’ album will be the song “Oru Nalla Pooppaatumaayi” set to tune by a software engineer K B Unnikrishnan, who has been trained in Carnatic music by Chandramana Narayanan Namboothiri. Rahul Soman, another software engineer in Bangalore, has penned the lyrics for the album.The song is set to be released on August 31, the Atham day, on the website www.eenam.com. The video will be promoted through major TV channels, YouTube and other social networking sites.“The song has been composed with flavours of “valla sadhya.” The valla sadya is a unique mass feast with strong devotional moorings given to the crew of the palliyodams. The entire ambience of the valla sadya day has been captured in this song along with elements bringing back the nostalgic memories of Onam,” says Rahul.“Moreover, the album is a joint effort by a group of Malayalis who still carry the same nostalgic memories of Onam in their minds. The song has been orchestrated by Sibu Sukumaran, and Ajeesh Kumar a young entrepreneur from Bangalore lend his voice for a folk-style rendition. Sushanth Shankar another IT professional has also joined to sing certain chorus,” adds Rahul.