KOCHI: The lockdown has activated a multitude of talents on various social media sites. While several have learnt new skills, the rest have honed their existing ones -- like that of Salini Bose and her family. One platform. 16 cousins. In Salini’s extended family, a few are professionally trained, some midway and the rest musically-gifted.
A catch was that all 16 were in different places, from Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Alappuzha, Kozhikode, Palakkad to Bengaluru and Dubai. Vowing to stay connected during the lockdown in a way that speaks volumes of their genetic ability, they have released a medley of songs accompanied by flute, violin and guitar. The video, titled ‘Music Cousins’, which is currently streaming on YouTube, is a hit.
The video begins with Sreeraj Sundar on violin, joined by Varun Babu on guitar. What follows is a beautiful euphony by the cousins, pitching in as chorus, with Salini’s husband Raghesh K joining in later as the flautist. Piravom native Salini, who’s based in Dubai, is a classically trained singer and an engineer by profession. “Both my siblings Sarath Chandra Bose and Sarika Bose are classically trained, and all my cousins are ardent lovers of music -- some are undergoing professional training and some have been trained in playing instruments.
Sreerag is pursuing his BA in Violin from Swathi Thirunal College of Music, Thiruvananthapuram. Varun is studying at the KM Music Conservatory, Chennai. During the lockdown, the idea of coordinating with everyone and creating a music video struck me. When I asked my extended family about the same, they were thrilled. We wanted to convey via the video that regardless of the lockdown, we can stay connected,” says Salini.
However, just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, the video took more than three weeks to complete. “Videos were recorded with limited resources, just on our phones. Our guitarist Varun programmed the tracks. My brother Sarath, who is a music teacher, mixed the vocals. Another cousin Krishnakumar V S edited the video and created the motion graphics,” she says. Excluding one cousin who was busy with his studies, everyone else in Salini’s extended unit was part of the video.
The song selection wasn’t tough. “As it was our first video, we wanted to limit the same to just three to four minutes. We included Malayalam and Tamil songs which shared a similar rhythm and were simultaneously peppy. As some of us are Carnatically-trained, we decided to end the medley on a similar note with ‘swaras’,” Salini said.
The other cousins featured in the video include Praveena Pradeep, Rejitha Kannan, Kiran Vijay, Rakhi Rajesh, Radhika Kannan, Ashwathi S, Keerthi, Saran Giri Kumar, Sreereshmy Murali and Sreeraj Onakkoor. The ‘Music Cousins’ hope to release more covers in the future. The video can be found onthe channel ‘Shot Cut Media’.