Sometimes, old loves must never be revisited. But, A.R. Rahman tempts you to, with his rendition of ‘Urvasi Urvasi’, Version 2. If the original was an ode to youth and college students and everything 90s, the latest one reinvents itself with references to more current events. And though Rahman had expressly asked people to leave out references to Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and the currency situation, and “try to come up with something interesting & humorous”, all three feature in the new song. Probably, they’d already decided to include them.
Four lines have been chosen from the huge number of responses that came in. Writing on his Facebook page, Rahman said: “Well, we had a lot of great ideas flowing and it was tough to pick and choose, but finally we’ve gone ahead with contributions from Prasad Krishna — ‘Beltu Potoom Veshti Avundha’, Achintya Vatlu — ‘Helmet Potoom Mama Pidicha’, Rajesh Rajamani — ‘Kadalai Naduvil Battery Thirndal’ and Dileep Balaji — ‘Kizhinja Panta Fashion Nu Sonna’.
It’s interesting how interactive the entire process has been. Rajesh Rajamani, one of the chosen ones, was initially referred to as Rajesh Rajamouli. So, he commented in jest: “When Rahman chooses your line, but your name gets misspelt, take it easy Urvasi.” It was corrected the very next day.
The best part about the new song is that you watch mesmerised as the sarod player creates magic with his instrument, and watch in awe at the elaborate orchestration that the song demands. All these years, you could not take your eyes off Prabhudeva and his graceful moves. Now, here’s a chance to appreciate the music, and the people behind it, a little more.
Just one thing. With time, things change. In the 1990s, eve-teasing stayed just that, irritating but mostly harmless. Today, in a deeply-fragmented world, where gender inequity is on the rise, we wish lines with references to ‘figure’ and their ilk had been replaced. Then, the mood and the music would have been relevant to current times.
The video is up on MTV India’s Facebook page, and has so far received 1.6 million views
