Indian music director, composer and singer MM Keeravani, controversial filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma and Telugu playback singer Vandematram Srinivas Rao have separately composed and released awareness songs on the novel cornavirus.
The song by Keeravani is a pastiche of his score ‘Ekkado Putti Ekkado Perigi’ song from Jr NTR-starrer ‘Student No 1’ film. The song in the 2001 film is a tribute to teachers by the graduating college students. For this corona song, he changed the lyrics to ‘We stay at home, we stay at home, we stay safe’. He came up with the song after Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao sought the film industry to come up with an awareness campaign on Covid-19. He advises the people to stay indoors and maintain social distancing and stresses the importance of following proper hygiene to keep the deadly virus at bay.
He also pays tributes to corona warriors including doctors, nurses, police and the government for their efforts in containing the spreading virus. The song released on TV channels and YouTube has gone viral on social media.
Varma has come up with a song ‘Adi oka purugu, kanipinchani purugu....’ in his inimitable style where he says the invisible organism that has shaken the world and proved more potent that the deadliest weapons on this earth is not invincible after all. But he calls it an insect (purugu in Telugu). We can excuse him for that for he has effectively conveyed the dangers of not taking precautions against its spread. He uses the choicest abuses in Telugu against the coronavirus and supports the strict confinement enforced by the authorities. He suggests social distancing, hand washing, staying at home and wearing of mask to fight this scourge. Staying home is the biggest punishment we can give to this ‘insect’ and ‘kill it’, he says in his song.
Revolutionary singer Srinivas appears initially with a face mask in the video to put across the message to stay indoors in the song ‘Intlo Undandi’ penned by lyricist Anantha Sriram. He uses the syllables in corona in his song much like Prime Minister Narendra Modi did in Hindi during his announcement of the three-week lock down in the country.
Srinivas advises against gatherings, going out on the roads, stay home for four weeks. Further, the song suggests us not to get dejected and make do with pickles and pulses if we don’t get vegetables or fresh milk in the market due to the lockdown. He, too, eulogises the efforts by the medical staff and cops to ensure our health and safety and stresses social distancing.
The song says that 1.3 billion Indian people will drive away COVID-19 from the country and praises the efforts of federal and state governments to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Telugu film industry also is doing its bit to spread awareness and digging deep into its pockets with many stars pledging millions of rupees in the fight against COVID-19. Last week Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, Varun Tej and Sai Dharam Tej have featured in a coronavirus awareness music video, recorded from their individual homes rather than together in a recording studio or outdoors. That itself in a way carried the message of keeping distance. The song was composed by music director Koti.
