AANNJJAALLII DDAASS ‘Cosplay in

India has come a long way over

the last fewyears, and

people are reallystarting to

appreciate it asan art’

KABALI

SETS NEW

RECORD IN

THE US

kerala

Singer Najim Arshad has lent voice tohis second Hindi song — a lullaby —for the upcoming TV series Tamanna

CinemayaCinemaya

NAJIM IN LULLABY MODE

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DECCAN CHRONICLE

Three years down hisBollywood debut, NajimArshad is back in Hindi

again, this time for mini-screen.The singer croons for a forth-coming television series on StarPlus, Tamanna. In the second-coming, Najim teams up with thesame old 'Sawalon ki GodhMein…' composer AdvaitNemlekar of 'Kaafiron kiNamaaz', a song rendered in2013. His soothing voice puts youto sleep in the quiet of the night.The recording of a four-minutelullaby took place in Kochi amonth ago.

"A few lines recorded and sentby Advait over WhatsApp wasthe first invite for me to associ-ate with the project. I tried on thesame verses and reverted to himfor voice approval. In a shortwhile, I received the go ahead.Advait took a flight to Kochi for aday and we had the recordingdone overnight," says Najim.

No wonder Najim kept himselfaway from projects outsideMalayalam for quite a long time.His discography over the pastthree years stands testimonywith somewhat 60 plus songs hehad lent voice to.

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MARIA IS

BACK AS

SUHARA

THE AGE OF

MALAYALI

Three cosplayers from Kerala

have made it big at this year's

Bangalore Comic Con by finding

a place in the list of finalists

CCOOSSPPLLAAYY The practice ofdressing up as acharacter from afilm, book or videogame, especiallyone from theJapanese genresof manga or anime

SUPERHEROES

NNaajjiimm AArrsshhaadd

RAMSHANKARUNNIKRISHNAN

II ttooookk tthhee OOppttiimmuussssuuiitt ttoo HHyyddeerraabbaadd iinn aa

bbuuss,, aanndd tthhee ddrriivveerrcchhaarrggeedd aann eexxttrraa11,,000000.. AAnndd wwhhiillee

rreettuurrnniinngg,, aa ddiiffffeerreennttbbuuss ddrriivveerr cchhaarrggeeddaannootthheerr `̀11,,550000 ffoorrtthhee ssaammee lluuggggaaggee

As he took home last year's Grand Prizeat the Bangalore Comic Con for hisskilfully crafted Bumblebee suit, theBengaluru convention's regular crowdhad already known the Autobot cos-

player as the back-to-back Grand Prize Winner in2013 and 2014. While in 2013, it was his IronmanMark 7 suit from Marvel comics that wonhim the Grand Prize, it was a verydetailed War Machine v1.0 suit from theIronman movie that bagged him the prizein 2014.

Nadir is a well-known name in cosplaycircles, being part of both the IndianCosplay Community as well as theBangalore Anime Club.

But Nadir's trip to superstardom (literal-ly) came with its share of struggles. Ifmaking his well-detailed suits took timeand effort, carrying them to Bengalurufrom Kochi every time, made the creationseem like the easier bit. "I took the trainfor the first two times and it was reallyhard... the third time, I had to rent a car."

"Carrying six big boxes to the railway stations, itwas just a friend and I. We had to jump in before thetrain left the station," Nadir recounted his secondtrip. The same could be said about Nadir's friendand another Kochi-based cosplayer RamshankarUnnikrishnan. From cosplaying Kerala's ownsuperhero Odayan in the 2014 Bangalore Con, theComputer Science Engineer from Angamaly sweptthe 2015 Hyderabad Comic Con by winning theGrand Prize with his aesthetically-made OptimusPrime suit from Transformers. It took him threemonths to craft the suit to such perfection that itwon him the Grand Prize. The suit was craftedusing a material called Eva form. However, he alsohad his share of transportation woes, "I took theOptimus suit to Hyderabad in a bus, and the drivercharged an extra ` 1,000. And while returning, adifferent bus driver charged another `1,500 for thesame luggage. I spent more on transportation thanto make the entire costume."

When the boys were making ripples in the cos-play scene in the South, Anjali Dasfrom Thiruvananthapuramexploded into the scene with hergorgeously fiery and daringWonder Woman (warrior)cosplay at the New DelhiComic Con by the end of2015. Anjali, by then, hadalready made a namefor herself in the

Bangalore Comic Con with her flawlessHarley Quinn cosplay from theBatman Animated Series back in 2014,and then her very memorable FemaleLoki from Marvel Comics earlier lastyear. As she prepares to go to Italynext month for her PhD in Chemistry

at Parma, she pondersover the future of cos-play in Kerala. "Cosplayin India has come a longway over the last fewyears, and people arereally starting to appre-ciate it as an art."However, Ramsankarpoints out the diffi-culties of it reach-ing Kerala,"There're only ahandful ofMalayali cos-

players and most ofthem live outside

Kerala. When I started cosplay-ing, it was only Nadir and I whoactually went for Comic Cons to cos-play from Kerala. In fact, most peoplehere don't even know what cosplayis.”

Nadir, with a glint of hope in hiseyes and the determination tobring about change in Kerala,weighs in, "With the help of someof my friends, I'm planning topromote cosplay in Kerala.We'd love to see this culturegrow in my home state..."

However, he acknowledgesthat the first step is thehardest, "First, we'llhave to make the peo-ple see the differ-ence between cos-play and fancy

dress."

Tuesday 8 January 2013

cover storyFriday 29 January 2016 19

Kochi Chronicle

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TRIP TO

MUSICAL

FAME

Najim had his kittyfilled to the brim inthe past two-three

years with songs inMollywood cinema togetherwith contributions to a cou-ple of music albums. The former reality starmade his mark as a play-back singer in the 2007 flickMission 90 Days. The bigbreak came exactly a yearlater in Chembada where heshot to fame with a soul-stir-ring duet. The latest fromNajim was in Malgudi Days.Tamanna, a Ramesh Deoproduction, is a fictional talespun around womenempowerment. The plotrevolves around a young girlbound by obstacles andsocial orthodoxy, who stillaspires to become a crick-eter. The Najim song 'OhNindya Ki Rani…' appearsin one of the sequences."I consider this a real hon-our. What I came to knowwas that there were a fewmore singers who wereauditioned for this particu-lar song. Happy for myname getting selected," hesmiles. In 2016, Najim hasalready got into his usualbusyness. He has songs inM u t t a y i k a l l a n u mMammaliyum and anotheryet-to-be-announced movie.

‘ What I came toknow was thatthere were a fewmore singers whowere auditioned.Happy for myname gettingselected’

MUCH MORE THAN

FANCY DRESS

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