18/5/23
Sunil Venjaramoodu’s Oxygen, a collection of Malayalam poems, innovatively clubs new digital media to expose the healing power of poetry. It is a clarion call for action to regain confidence from the chokingly hapless quarantine days. The insecurity due to Covid epidemic and the hope for a secure future are the stimuli of these 54 motivational poems.
Oxygen explores the possibilities of digital media in a novel way that each of the poems includes one or two video reviews by the doyens of art and literature, such as Padma Shri Dr Kalamandalam Gopi, Paithrukarathnam Dr Unnikrishnan Namboothiri, Syamaprasad et al. Scanning the QR Codes printed beside the poems can make the YouTube videos accessible to the readers. The audio versions of the forwards written by Dr George Onakkoor and K. Jayakumar IAS are also available at YouTube in the vocals of the playback singer Krishnachandran and the multifaceted Banna Chennamangalloor respectively.
“Life is the good poetry which seeks name, root and truth” – says Sunil Venjaramoodu at the outset of the book. The poet does not wish to see the death of humanity due to lack of oxygen, the life gas. His “Oxygen”, a poem in the book with the same name emphasises the importance of the life gas in the pandemic period. The relative importance of the title in the contemporary situation underlines the healing, motivational and life-giving power of poetry. These thought-provoking poems instil the readers with values to lead a worthy life. The ecological concerns expressed in the poems are also noteworthy. Indeed, Rajesh Chalode’s art on the cover page also underlines the thematic appeal of the book.
The meritorious quality of the second poem “Anuroopam” in this collection is marked by its music composition and recital by the well-known playback singers Krishnachandran and Amruthavarshini which was telecast on Amrita Television.
Sunil Venjaramoodu’s first collection of poems is exceptional in its novelty. It promotes reading as the readers get a better understanding of each poem from the video versions of the critical appreciations given along with them by great academicians, artists and men of letters.
[5/18, 10:46 AM] Pallichal Suresh Uni: Sunil Venkaramoodu’s Poetry Collection ‘Oxygen’: The Sustenance of Human Life.