Musician Anjana Rajagopalan’s song pays tribute to bond between children with disabilities & parents

Candid moments in the lives of children with disabilities are rarely seen in popular music and films. Chennai-based musician Anjana Rajgopalan’a latest music video does exactly that. Her Tamil song Unadhu Mounam Paladhum Pesum is made up of real life videos of children with disabilities that capture fun and tender moments.

The joy of splashing in rainwater puddles. A game of table tennis on a study table and playing catch in a corridor. A fun and playful yoga session at home.

Slice of life moments in the lives of children with disabilities and their families come alive in Anjana Rajagopalan’s video of her latest Tamil song Unadhu Mounam Paladhum Pesum.

Anjana, a music composer, arranger, singer and voice trainer, was struck by the near absence of such moments in the lives of children with disabilities in popular music and films.

Anjana taught music to child with ADHD

“My aim was to educate myself and my audience”, says Anjana, who entered the Tamil film industry three years ago. “There is so much about the bond they share with their caregivers that we are unaware of. I wanted to throw light on this through my song that is about parents singing about their special child, like a soliloquy”.

Before composing the song, Anjana set out to learn more about this bond by speaking to families. Among the organisations she reached out to was the Special Child Assistance Network (SCAN), a network of parents with children with disabilities. “I came to know that there were several children with communication disorders who could sing, enjoy and express themselves through music”.

I reached out to Gopinath Ramakrishnan of SCAN with this idea and he sent out a word to his network of special needs families, requesting those who were interested to send in home videos of themselves and their children. I was pleasantly surprised to see how welcoming the parents were of the idea. Once I had enough number of videos, I put them together in a way that would bring the story of the song alive. – Anjana Rajagopalan, Musician

Anjana planned to record the voices of some of these children in her song but the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown changed that. So, she recorded the song with Carnatic vocalist Srivathsan S at her home studio. She also arranged, programmed, and mixed the track.

Gopinath says the song vividly captures the relationship disabled children and their families share.

“When Anjana approached me with this idea, I was really delighted that a person outside the special needs community had noticed this bond between special needs children and their parents. Anjana is such a sensitive person that the entire song – lyrics, melody and cadence – beautifully reflects this relationship”.