Musician Omar Zakhariah celebrates Pongumoodu, his neighbourhood in Thiruvananthapuram, in a funky rap

If you search for Pongumoodu online, you’ll see that it is one of those places mentioned in news reports about water supply disruptions in Thiruvananthapuram city due to a pipe burst or maintenance work. As a former resident of Pongumoodu, if anyone asks me about the place, I would struggle to think of one interesting thing to tell them. For those who commute from Kazhakoottam side to city regularly, it is just a bus stop between two major and far more interesting places, Sreekariyam and Ulloor.

So, imagine a slick rap song about this place. This unlikely musical tribute is the handiwork of Omar Zakhariah, a “proud”, long-time resident of Pongumoodu, who is collaborating with Kottayam-based rapper and music producer Anohnymouss, aka Anoh Jacob Biju, for his first EP (extended play).

An unlikely rap

‘Pongumoodu,’ which came out last month, is the first song to be released. “The response has been amazing, especially from Pongumoodu natives from around the world,” says Omar, who is buzzing from the praise he has been getting for the song.

The disbelief is palpable as the song was meant to be something quirky both Omar and the director/editor of the video Mrinal Rajeev, Omar’s friend and another Pongumoodu native, expected no one to take seriously. Now they have people who are living as far away as Toronto reminiscing the good old days when they used to have egg puffs and drinks from Leeja Bakery, the beloved old local bakery featured towards the end of the video.

The trending rap was born out of the opening guitar chords of an old song that Omar and Mrinal found on a music licensing website when they were hanging out one day. Omar tells, “We tried remixing the opening portion then and there with the tools provided on that website and realised that this could be expanded into something with a funky disco vibe. I have a notes app on my phone where I jot down lines and hooks that come to my mind. So, when I heard that music, I tried singing something I had written down.”

Going local

Even before coming up with the opening ‘Where ya hood at!?’, Omar tried out the line ‘You hungry? We gotchu! Porottayum chaarum al-fahm pikachu!’ “And Mrinal was like ‘Omar! Please don’t sing that. No one will take us seriously’, and I told him ‘May be, they shouldn’t’,” he recalls, not able to hold his laughter thinking how he came up with the hilarious lyrics of the rap that includes references to the local shoe shop, hairdresser, bar, and even the few violent habitual offenders of this boringly mundane and middle-class locality.

“I mean, there is not much to show,” Omar adds with a giggle. Nevertheless, the song video was shot entirely in Pongumoodu with a significant portion on an empty overgrown plot not far from Mary Nilayam School, Omar’s alma mater.

The video also features two of Omar’s friends, guitarist Rahul RB, and bassist Akash Vijayan, also a member of Omar’s rap-rock band Omar and the Wrong Meds. The band, which includes Omar’s nephew Joseph P John, has performed ‘Pongumoodu’ and other songs that are going to be part of the EP at their recent gigs.

“Although he is not part of the band, I wanted Rahul to be a part of the song as he is a brilliant musician and, more importantly, from Pongumoodu.”

Getting serious

Omar, a synthetic chemist specialised in medicinal chemistry, will initially release five songs to be the EP, and aims to bring out 14 songs in total as part of his first album. The second song ‘Amem Muyalum’, which is already out, is a groovy rap-rock song with catchy bass and guitar lines, a bit like the early blues rock work of Eric Clapton, one of Omar’s early inspirations as a guitar player. It was born out of the popular Aesop’s fable, The Tortoise and the Hare, and Omar’s own frustrations with the toxic competitiveness of corporate life.

“We are tackling some serious subjects in the other songs. Anoh pointed out that that it is a bit like showing the crowd a nice colourful candy, that is the ‘Pongumoodu’ rap, to catch their attention and then pushing them to some dark stuff. I am really excited about the next one called ‘Anadhikritharkku praveshanam illa’ (no entry for illegals) and it was born out of a board that Anoh’s mom saw somewhere. We also have a song about substance addiction and the hypocrisy of our people when it comes to demonising addicts,” adds Omar. All songs have been mastered by famous guitarist and composer Rex Vijayan.

‘Pongumoodu’ is streaming on YouTube.