Sometime ago, Sithara Krishnakumar penned those poetic verses to be read by her dearest friend. But it rested peacefully in one of the pages of her notepad until one day she opened it again to address womanhood on the whole. As the world salutes the fairer sex on the International Women’s Day, the Thiruvavaniravu singer launches herself as a singer-cum-lyricist-cum-composer with the album Ente Akasham dedicated to femininity. The work is her two-month-long effort to picturise the life of night-time female workers. “Sky is treated as a common space shared by women at work, knowingly or unknowingly, during night. It is bit of a romantic idea, but a universal thought. The me-time for these women is little. The album wants them to pause for a minute and think about themselves. The video maps the common thought process every woman passes through than straightaway speaking about the atrocities against them or an awareness creation in that sense,” Sithara explains.
The spark of an idea evolved from her experience of working late into night. “It is a usual thing to record late into night. When the work gets over, we realise the tango of light and darkness. We searched for places as such where women toil at nights when the world around her sleeps,” she rewinds the day of making. A she-taxi driver, a candle-light vendor outside the Kaloor church, a girl in a slum and sales girls in textile showrooms turn subjects for Ente Akasham.
Album poster
Friend circuits and her doctor hubby’s support were immense to materialise the idea into a five-minute video-song. The shooting got over in a week’s time. Screenwriter Ravisankar, a childhood friend of Sithara, assured his contribution as the creative head in visualising it. Kochi city and its surrounding areas served as locations. Bilu Tom Mathew has cranked the camera. Some of Sithara’s recent Malayalam film projects are for Godha, Sathya, Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum and C/O Saira Bhanu in addition to Tamil movies. The album is getting ready for an official release at the Women’s Day programme of Kerala State Women’s Development Corporation in Thiruvananthapuram on March 8. It’ll also be made available online.
