As another Kerala Piravi dawns, State’s long-awaited anthem still sleeps in files

As Kerala celebrates yet another Kerala Piravi on Saturday (November 1, 2025), the State anthem that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan once envisioned for official occasions still lies forgotten in the Kerala Sahitya Akademi’s archives.

It was in 2018 that the Chief Minister, during a face-to-face session with cultural leaders in Thrissur marking the second anniversary of his government, proposed that Kerala should have an official State song to be performed at public functions. He urged writers, poets, and musicians to compose and submit their works, promising that the best among them would be declared the official anthem of Kerala.

The akademi was entrusted with the responsibility of inviting entries and selecting the anthem. The response was overwhelming—over 2,000 songs poured in from across the State, from well-known and new writers alike. A selection committee comprising writers M. Leelavathy, M.R. Raghava Varier, Ezhachery Ramachandran, M.M. Basheer, and the akademi secretary was formed to pick the best entry.

But seven years later, the committee still exists, the file remains open, and the song remains unheard. All the submitted works continue to be preserved at the akademi.

Even the Chief Minister, who once championed the idea, no longer appears to be following it up. During the review process, experts reportedly found that most submissions lacked the expected quality—some were too long, others too weak in composition. Several suggestions arose to instead adopt an existing poem by one of Kerala’s early poets as the State song.

“The committee is yet to arrive at a unanimous decision,” said akademi president K. Satchidanandan. “Even now, we continue to receive fresh entries for the anthem. There are a few that I personally like, but the final choice must be a collective decision of the committee,” he said.

When the matter was raised during another cultural interface with the Chief Minister, he had reiterated that the issue would be considered, but nothing moved forward.

A controversy

The dormant project sparked controversy when veteran filmmaker and lyricist Sreekumaran Thampi accused the akademi of humiliating him after inviting him to write the State anthem. In a Facebook post, he claimed that Mr. Satchidanandan and the akademi secretary had personally asked him to compose a simple song, which he did. But when they expressed dissatisfaction, he made some changes. Later the akademi ignored his work and opened public submissions again.

“I’ve written over 3,000 songs, yet I was insulted by the akademi,” Mr. Thampi wrote, adding that he would record his version at his own expense and release it on YouTube for Malayalees across the world.

Mr. Satchidanandan said the committee had found Mr. Thampi’s lyrics clichéd.