Vote Haaki is more than just a political statement
Through its images and form, ‘Vote Haaki’ represents Shailaja’s intersectional politics in every beat. And with its snappy music and dance moves, the song is getting people to dance over the society’s deadbeat systems…
_ Deepti Komalam
It isn’t just a song about people’s frustrations with election dramas or the importance of voting wisely, ‘Vote Haaki’ the latest Kannada catchy number on Youtube also questions preconceived notions about gender and sexuality. Written, sung and performed by film maker Shailaja Padindala, ‘Vote Haaki’ was released on Youtube on May 1 to coincide with the International Labour Day. The song is part of her yet-to-be-released Kannada film about queer love and reproductive rights, ‘Naanu Ladies’. “Naanu Ladies is about celebrating ‘error’ – the hair, dark skin, free expressions of the body.
The protagonist is a girl who wants to be an actor but does not behave in stereotypical ‘feminine’ ways. The film is about normalizing it instead of glamourizing it. It is to celebrate all that the glamour world terms as errors,” says Shailaja, who had earlier made waves with her short film ‘Memories of a Machine’ starring Kerala state award winning actor Kani Kusruti.
The song, which has been released independent of the film, boldly questions the nature of our society and the systems that have become entrenched in it. From our political system which revolves around mere seeking of votes in return for freebies, the patriarchal culture centered around heterosexual marriage and reproduction, to the education sector bent on churning out only monetary successes, the song’s piercing lyrics spare nothing from its questioning gaze. And all this while retaining its fun dance number optics.
“The song has been shot similar to the item number format. Here too is one female dancer surrounded by lots of men. But it is an attempt to subvert this by bringing non-binary expression to gender and fluidity without objectifying or sexualizing any gender. The woman wears a lungi and dances freely without having to move in ways that have been defined and constrained as sexy feminine. The shoot was done with a small crew due to budget limits and most of the local crowd became part of the video,” says Padindala, who identifies as a non-binary/genderqueer person.
The song has been produced by JLT films in association with Mustache Under My Nose Ring, which is a digital fashion platform run by Shailaja. She focuses on non-binary fashionwear and attempts to create an inclusive gender-neutral community of fashion, design, art, cinema and beauty. “Fashion is not just about style, it is a statement. Ambedkar wearing a suit and Gandhi wearing khadi were statements,” says the Bangalore-based multi-talented artiste. As it says on its Facebook page, Mustache Under My Nose Ring “is a movement to address the evolving form of feminine and masculine beauty and how it meets the eye of the beholder.”
Through its images and form, ‘Vote Haaki’ represents Shailaja’s intersectional politics in every beat. And with its snappy music and dance moves, the song is getting people to dance over the society’s deadbeat systems.
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