Thanks to all those music videos that released this month, the festive season was almost like a return to the 90’s for Malayalis. Just as the Onam spirit was slowly dying, composer and singer Sruthi Lakshmee started receiving calls regarding her latest work — the song Minji. “I did not even know when the song released on Youtube. I was travelling for shows during those days. After reaching home, I started getting calls with messages that the song is good and I was wondering how they got to hear it. That is when I was told that it is out. By the time I checked, the song already had close to 5,000 views,” she says with a laugh.
Minji — composed by Sruthi Lakshmee — has gone viral for its simple lyrics and smooth melody soon after it released two days ago. The song penned by Vishnu Padikaparambil was rendered by Sruthi herself along with Jyothi Krishna. The video, which stars actors Badri Krishna and Parvati R. Krishna, was directed by Varun Dhara. “My journey with this song was quite unexpected,” she says, adding, “It was assigned to someone else. But then that person had to back out and it came to me. It started off as a very small work, with really tight financial backing. A lot of my good friends worked with me for this song.”
Sruthi is one of those few female artists who is also a music programmer. She has been working with the music industry as a programmer for the past three years. “It was not easy. I had to hear a lot of ‘Girls cannot be music programmers’ during the initial years. So right now I am happy with this work, especially because this is one good programming work from my end. This is my response to a lot of people,” she says. The young musician is also currently working towards releasing her own single music video. “I’m hoping to bring out my single in two months time, currently working on its video. It is feel-good music. It is an experimental piece but the basic concept is to make everyone happy.”
