Enjoy Enjaami | Did the message make the song go viral?

Image credit: Suneesh K

Why and how do songs go viral on the social media? There are no clear or categorical answers, particularly because the languages in which the songs are originally sung touch and appeal to sections of populations across cultures and linguistic boundaries.

All the same the meaning and text of the songs may, and in fact do, remain incomprehensible to a multitude of listeners/watchers. Which means virality has very little to do with the message.

In the days gone by too some songs have enjoyed huge popularity but given that there was no way to measure that, and the reach was undoubtedly highly limited, the kind of virality that some songs attain today was undeniably absent.

Understanding Enjaami

It is in this backdrop that we need to assess and analyse the virality of the Tamil song Enjoy Enjaami. Different narratives are put forth by the various sections who have taken an interest in the song. What is interesting is even those who have an understanding of Tamil, or those who have had the benefit of going through the lyrics translated into other languages, have responded in divergent ways in terms of their interpretation of the song. Personal inclinations and religious and political ideologies, indisputably, influence people in the way they understand a situation/context.

It is pertinent to raise the issue of comprehensibility of the lyrics of the song. What seems to have made the song a humongous success is the stunning natural outdoors, constructed sets, and the fabulous costumes including the jewellery. But the intention of the production team in terms of the messages to be conveyed stand far from the visuals and remain embedded in the lyrics. That is where seems to be the rub.

While for Mahatma Gandhi the pronouncement of Krishna from the Bhagavat Gita: ‘Do your work, don’t expect the fruits of your labour’ would seem to be apposite, BR Ambedkar would certainly take up cudgels against such dictums, which can be propounded only by the elitist and advantaged sections of the society; sections that have just no perception or insight of what goes into manual labour. Hence, the stanza from the lyrics of Enjoy Enjaami

I planted five trees
Nurtured a beautiful garden
My garden is flourishingYet my throat remains dry

is not just profoundly revealing, but is also quite disturbing at one level.

The fruits of the labour of the individuals being alienated from them in order that others (those who control the means of production) reap the benefit of the produce of the labourers’ toil and sweat is something that forthrightly points to the total subservience, exploitation and deprivation of the labour class in a society that is highly stratified. Also, it is akin to rubbing salt in the wounds of the toilers due to the ritual and social sanction accorded for the hierarchisation for the oppression of the producer.

What About The Dalits?

Another significant narrative that is somewhat latent in the song has been missed by those who have commented on the song and its lyrics, and that has to do with the larger Tamil society. When the Tamils in Sri Lanka are alluded to as regards their travails and tribulations, the point of reference invariably happens to be the Jaffna or Sri Lankan Tamils and their Hindu religious identity.

Pray, what about the Indian or plantation Tamils, the most deprived of the lot in the island comprising of almost 83 percent Dalits? The ubiquitous, seemingly unending emphasis on the plight of the Jaffna Tamils neglects and negates the suffering of the plantation Tamils amounting almost to their nonexistence.

Is it due to their Dalit identity that they get excluded and cannot be part of a pan-Tamil community in Sri Lanka?

Another alarming facet here is that though Muslims speak Tamil and cohabit with the Hindu Jaffna Tamils in the North and East of Sri Lanka, still they too are not part of the pan-Tamil community. They get excluded due to the foisting of their Muslim religious identity. The monolithic ethnic identity bestowed on them is that of the Muslim.

Outsiders At Home

The song goes beyond the plantations in Sri Lanka. A section of Indian Tamils did get back to Tamil Nadu under a political pact after having lived there for generations but their misery and suffering did not cease. They were tossed around and discriminated against as ‘outsiders’ and ‘migrants’ though they were under the impression, and rightly so, that they had come back ‘home’.

This is where Enjoy Enjaami makes a poignant but latent statement; the elitist indulgence as regards the Jaffna Tamils that comprises of over 50 percent of the upper caste Vellalars who are mostly landholders, and the lower sections among them, referred to as Panchamar, happen to be just about 18 percent. It is believed that ‘privileged liberals are notorious for their selective outrage and calculated silences’.