Filmmaker and an outspoken anti-caste activist Pa Ranjith took exception to Rolling Stone India’s August cover that celebrates recent mega hits Neeye Oli and Enjoy Enjaami without a nod in the direction of the young rapper Arivu, who wrote the lines for both and sang in one of them. The cover has the faces of singer and performer Dhee, daughter of Santhosh Narayanan who was also the female singer in Rowdy Baby, and Shan Vincent de Paul, who sang the Sarpatta Parambarai song Neeye Oli.
Ranjith Tweeted, “@TherukuralArivu, the lyricist of #Neeyaoli and singer as well as lyricist of #enjoyenjami has once again been invisiblised. @RollingStoneIN and @joinmaajja is it so difficult to understand that the lyrics of both songs challenges this erasure of public acknowledgement?”
@TherukuralArivu, the lyricist of #Neeyaoli and singer as well as lyricist of #enjoyenjami has once again been invisiblised. @RollingStoneIN and @joinmaajja is it so difficult to understand that the lyrics of both songs challenges this erasure of public acknowledgement? https://t.co/jqLjfS9nwY— pa.ranjith (@beemji) August 22, 2021
Ranjith posed the question to the magazine and maajja, an AR Rahman initiative to amplify the work of independent musicians in the digital space. After Ranjith’s Tweet, the Twitter handle of Rolling Stone India put out tweets recognising Arivu, music director Santhosh Narayanan, rapper Navz-47 and AR Rahman — for being the force behind the independent music initiative maajja.
Enjoy Enjaami, the first to be launched by maajja in March this year, is based on the lived experience of Arivu’s grandmother Valliammal, one among the legion of Tamil migrants who returned back to Tamil Nadu after working in the Sri Lankan tea plantations. Arivu, in his lyrics, conveys the pain of landless migrants who toil away in the lands they never get to own.
In Neeye Oli, Arivu’s words underscore the pain-filled lives of boxers of North Madras who, amid searing poverty, were able to keep up the animosity between rival long boxing camps.
Enjoy Enjaami has garnered 31 crore views in five months on YouTube, becoming one of the most watched videos on the platform in recent times. Arivu is also featured in the video. Even earlier, a Times Square display celebrating the success of Enjoy Enjaami was called out on social media for the glaring exclusion of Arivu.
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