Oscar-winning music composer and singer A.R. Rahman has done a re-imagination of his hit song Urvasi Urvasi, 23 years after it was first released in 1994. In the new version, made for the seventh season of MTV Unplugged, Rahman is joined by Suresh Peters and composer Ranjit Barot.
The song was posted by MTV on Wednesday and later shared by Rahman on his page. It now talks of Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and even demonetisation. The video has already been viewed more than 1.7 million times.
On December 1, Rahman had asked his followers on Facebook to suggest new and contemporary ‘Charanams’ (verses) for the song. “Feel free to contribute.. Of course please do leave out and avoid any reference to Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump or the currency situation for now and try to come up with something interesting & humorous in the same scaling of the original Tamil version…,” Rahman said.
However, he did end up including all of these as he must have already planned for it.
To make it easier for non-Tamil speaking populace, here’s a translation of the lyrics in English:
- “Beltu Potum Veshti Avundha” – If the veshti (the dhoti-type loose cloth that south Indians tie around their waist) falls off even after securing it with a belt
- “Helmet Potum Mama Pidicha” – If traffic police (called ‘mama’ in local slang) catches you despite wearing a helmet.
- “Kadalai Naduvil Battery Thirndal” – If phone runs out of battery while flirting
- “Kizhinja Panta Fashion Nu Sonna”– If a torn pant is branded as ‘fashion’
‘Urvasi Urvasi’ was first composed for Kadhalan, starring Prabhu Deva and Nagma, released in 1994. A Hindi version of the song was also released in Hum Se Hai Muqabala.
News Courtesy: Hindustan Times
