Cool Stuff 3!

Just as there is popular Arabic music that extends to many genres, the same goes for Indian music. One example of this is the Canadian YouTuber Lilly Singh, who is of Indian descent and makes hip-hop/pop music that is heavily influenced by traditional Indian music sounds. Her music has been in Bollywood films, including the women-empowerment song she is featured in below, “Mauj Ki Malharein”, which was in the movie Gulaab Gang.

Lilly Singh has done other collaborations as well, one of her most notable being with “Humble the Poet”. Their song below is called “IVIVI” — the Roman numerals for the area code for Toronto, the place the two call home. In the song, notice the use of Indian drums and sitar mixed with the hip-hop sound and Western production style. It really makes a unique sound!

When I was in my freshman year of high school, my concert choir performed a piece called “Balleilakka”, which had a music video we watched in class that I’ll never forget, which I’ve attached below.

Isn’t that fun? I didn’t think too much about where the video came from when I was younger, but now that we’ve taken a look at Indian music, I thought, “What better time could there be to revisit the topic?”

This video is from a Bollywood movie called Sivaji: The Boss. According to IMDb, the 2007 movie is about a software engineer that comes to India to serve and invest in the nation’s welfare. Some corrupt officials try to stop him, but he overcomes the obstacles. The movie became a success worldwide, and earned many awards. Sadly, I couldn’t find any info on how this song comes into play, but I did find a translation, which is below.

The Sun? The Moon?
Who is he? Tell me now!
Is he the medieval warrior?
Tell me tell me
Tell me now!

Look, look, who is he?
He is a pouncing wild cat’s legs
Tell, tell, who is he?
The Shiva who shoots down the bad guys

Eh A good route/way
To Salem or Madurai?
To Madras, Tiruchy or Thiruthani?
Eh A good route
For all the people
When big brother comes to Tamil Nadu, it is America*

Can the river Kaveri and the hand split rice be forgotten?
Oh, can the girls in Dhaavanis and expressive eyes be lost?

Our paddy thrashing contoured land
The dense forests
The roads which splash wet red soil
Run, run, run, run,
Run, run, run, run
(A game where people chase the others around)

The trees under which we play Sadugudu
The glistening grass which covers the ground
The dew drops which break as you touch them
The hot idlis you get
The railways that thunder
The rapid gurgling of the Kaveri
The folding white
The fierce looking moustaches
Stay in my heart

(drum work)
Sattena sollu
(drum work)
Sattena sollu
(drum work)

Stay in a village hut for some time
Through the holes in the thatched roof, try counting the stars
Switch off your cell-phone noises
We can listen to the insects’ pronunciations
We can walk barefoot, without our slippers
And talk to the soil as we go
Become children again…

We could braid the roots of the Banyan tree
And adorn it with flowers
In the outskirts, we can borrow a knife from a smith
To sharpen our pencils

In the Anjara petti/box of spices
Is the taste of Mother’s cooking
The leaves crushed with a grinding stone
With native chicken

The affection we have for our goats and cows
Will ask us to include them in the house food-portions (as allotted by a ration card)(?)
The care we have to give buttermilk to those who asked only for water
The smell of people (?)
Soil will fly here(?)

When the old lady makes medicines,
Even ghosts will flee
The affection with which we cook for our next-door neighbours
lives here

Pretty neat. Something else that intrigued me was the types of Arabic dances. I thought it was so cute how the children in the video we watched in class knew the dance styles and were having fun doing the dances to the music. While there are hundreds of types of Arabic dances (one of the most popular being belly dancing), there are notable traditional dance styles from specific countries that. I’ve attached a video that shows examples from a few different countries, and includes Turkish, Arab, Persian, and Kurdish styles.