It looked and sounded like Oorali, the band. The men wore the same kind of long hair and beard and costume of the band members, and sang the kind of protest song they would. Renjith Chittade let a lot of people think so and he didn’t bother to correct them. The song was after all written in solidarity to Oorali frontman Martin. Emanmare Emanmare became noticed again when it appeared as a song in the upcoming film Oru Mexican Aparatha.
“I made the song when Martin was arrested allegedly for his long-hair appearance. My friend Shebin Mathew had sung it and I had posted it on Facebook. Now, for the film, we recomposed the song,” says Renjith. He had been working as a sound engineer in Bollywood for a while before returning home to Guruvayur. It’s from Chetana Institute that he finished the sound engineering course. But it would be a huge mistake to label him a sound engineer, since he is a lot more. Renjith has directed a film, he works as a psychologist, he has been a Carnatic vocalist, an artist and a social worker.
“I don’t prefer being labelled as one of these,” he says. His Carnatic music had started long ago, when he was a child, becoming in those years a Kalaprathibha in classical music and light music. Paintings too had started early with prizes coming for competitions. Writing came a little later. He is in fact co-writing a book on Kerala Adivasis with a friend, not just on their land struggles but other problems related to culture. “It would be like historical fiction,” he says.
His film too had in fact been based on Adivasis in Wayanad. Pathinonnam Sthalam is about three journeys in a day by a group of men through Wayanad. It had been screened at the Biennale last month and selected for the Bodhisattva International Film Festival in Patna. “It's an art film,” says Renjith, who is now writing a script for his second film, which would be more mainstream. “You can call it a psychological thriller,” he says.
