Taking the online arena by storm, a 2.36-minute video, featuring the popular Tamil song ‘Pala Palakur’ became an overnight sensation, with the youth of Chenkalchoola Colony in Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram seen grooving to the beat. A team of 12 boys, all residents of this colony, came into limelight as their routine went viral after Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor shared the video on Facebook.
“The kids of Chenkalchoola Colony, known more formally as Rajaji Nagar in Thiruvananthapuram, shot this amazing sing and dance routine in their own alleyways, just using a mobile phone! What amazing talent there is in our least privileged neighbourhoods,” wrote Tharoor in encouragement.
Originally it was shared by a Facebook user Sudheer Ibrahim, who could not contain his delight in showcasing these talented young individuals. “These pearls of Chenkalchoola used just a mobile phone used to shoot and edit this whole video… professionals don’t stand a chance with this kind of direction and editing,” he added as the caption for the original video.
Portraying the everydayness of Kerala, this video starts off by capturing the essence of a colony that is familiar to us—spontaneous and real. Shot in various places across the colony from the roads to roof terrace, it also has kids jumping in from time to time, enjoying the dance and cheering them on. Paying homage to the original music video, this clipping takes us through the winding lanes of Chenkalchoola Colony to the beach and back.
The boys featured in the video are Pranav, Karthik, Smith, Jobin, Sooraj, Pravith, Joji, Sibi, Abhijith, Nikhil and Ajay with Abi Stone at the camera and visuals. Their YouTube Channel, 'creativity at speak' has aover 31,000 subscribers and still climbing. This was done as a tribute to the actor Suriya on his birthday and it was tweeted by the actor along with the original movie clipping saying “Loved it!”. The song, 'Pala Palakura' is from the 2009 movie Ayan, directed by K. V. Anand starring, Suriya, Prabhu, Tamannaah, Akashdeep Saighal.
Along with the dance video, they also recreated a fight scene from the movie Ayan. Their YouTube channel also features a revenge scene recreated from the 2017 Malayalam movie Parava directed by Soubin Shahir.
