Avial fever

It was another mad day at work with mad people. Mentally drained out, I was on my way back from office and I was listening to the radio. As usual I was checking out my favourite radio stations when I came across the Rock show at 8pm on Radio Indigo 91.9 . Some of my favourite songs were being played back to back. After listening to these and feeling light headed, I heard the RJ mentioning what’s up next on his playlist. I was taken aback when I heard that a song from the band Avial would be played next. Wait a minute; this show usually plays English rock songs, right? Felt awesome listening to 'Nada Nada' song that was played on radio.

For those who do not know, Avial is a rock band from Trivandrum (Kerala) which has become a household name in the Indian rock music scene for their brand of music. Their songs are essentially based on folk songs and alternative rock and the way they bring in the rock elements to their music is simply brilliant. Their songs are in Malayalam. It is this band that changed my view that Malayalam songs should just stick to melody genre just like the 80s and early 90s. I  had often felt that the nature of the language was such that it cannot accomodate elements of pop and the Tamil music influence. Tamil music industry is so versatile and they do a good job of adapting different music genres but that is not the case with Malayalam music industry. An interesting trend is emerging - rock bands like MotherJane and Avial are part of the OSTs of new Malayalam movies and these songs are well received.

Another surprising observation was my mom's liking towards songs of Avial. Mummy often referred to rock music as 'Chevy Vedana paattu' (songs that pain the ears!) but when I heard her crooning to one of their songs 'Karukara' one day, I was surprised and asked her - 'Mummy, ithu chevy vendane alle?' (Mummy, isn't this 'ear pain music'?). She told me that she likes folk songs and could grasp the lyrics unlike the usual rock songs which just seemed to her as a bunch of people screaming (well, thats her way of describing it!!). Of lately she has been crooning to Kolaveri Di but more on that later in another post! :-D

 The latest Avial song 'Ayyo' is finally out and has got me excited at the prospect of all Mallus singing loud and clear- 'AYYO' !!  :-)