Mohanlal’s football World Cup video emerges as a top-scorer

The video, directed by T.K. Rajeev Kumar, attracted 5.6 lakh views within 17 hours of its release

When actor Mohanlal spoke to director T.K. Rajeev Kumar about the possibility of doing something on the football World Cup in Qatar, the latter felt a song would be a good idea. After some research, he felt the well-documented craze for football in Malappuram district, in northern Kerala, could be a nice theme for the song. That was three months ago. On Monday, Rajeev found that the video, Tribute to World Cup Football, Qatar 2022, had already scored a stunning goal. It was trending as No. 1 on YouTube. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBxqeZ9uCRA) The video has attracted 5.6 lakh views within 17 hours of its release.

“We could not have imagined that it would become such a big hit within a day,” Rajeev tells The Hindu over phone from Doha, where the song was released on Sunday. Besides Malappuram’s passion for the beautiful game, the district’s unique tradition of seven-a-side football is also a dominating theme in the song, which is rendered by Mohanlal, who also has acted in it. “When I started doing the research for the song, I thought the ‘sevens’ football needed to be in focus,” says Rajeev, the director of films like Chanakyan and Pavithram. “I stayed in Malappuram for a few days to speak to footballers, like U. Sharaf Ali (former Indian captain), who have also appeared in the video.”

One of the things you would notice about the video is its overall production quality. That isn’t surprising, for the crew includes some of the big names from Malayalam cinema, like cinematographer Sudeep Elamon, editor Don Max, choreographer Brinda and production designer Santhosh Raman. It is produced by Antony Perumbavoor under the banner of Aashirvad Cinemas. The song is composed by Hesham Abdul Wahab, the winner of this year’s Kerala State Film Award for best music. Krishnadas Panki has written the lyrics.