Kaala’s Political Jukebox of French Horns & Freedom Chants

Kaala songs are loaded with political messaging. Here’s a jukebox, and the politics behind the lyrics.

Padayappa, Baba, Sivaji, Kabali and now Kaala; Rajinikanth’s films have grown politically aware and more direct over the years. And with the release of Kaala’s audio track (9 March), one is left wondering whether Rajinikanth is moving more purposefully towards a political opening.

It's not just the lyrics in Kaala’s songs that are political, but the choice of instruments and musicians as well.

Let’s break down the songs, one by one.

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Great Opening Song, Vague on Politics

‘Semma Weightu’ was the first single to be released in Pa Ranjith’s second outing with the superstar. It’s a typical Santhosh Narayanan (composer) song that is predominantly retro jazz. Santhosh sparked off this trend with Soothu Kavvum (2013) in which every song was an inseparable blend of different jazz forms and ‘kuththu’.

Of course, because it is Mumbai this time, there’s a bit of Dhol, beatboxing and hip hop beats added in.

‘Semma Weightu’ extols the colour ‘black’ and welcomes ‘Kaala Seth’. Lyrically speaking though, it’s fairly vague except on the fact that it is Kaala aka Rajinikanth that one must look to for leadership.

The description of Dharavi and its people in the song are reminiscent of life in parts of North Chennai, where a unique culture of the working class flourishes and bears the rest of the city on its back.

Raavana to Ambedkar

‘Katravai Patravai’ translates to ‘Educate, Agitate’, an oft repeated refrain of Dr BR Ambedkar.

The song begins with the words ‘One-headed Raavana, become ten heads’. It ends with the words ‘Katravai Patravai’. The song is written unequivocally from a Dravidian Dalit perspective. Here Raavana is the hero, the Superstar himself, as opposed to Ram who is seen as the God behind which to parade casteism.

The English rap halfway into the song (by YogiB, Arunraja and Roshan) has this to say:

Checkmate! White facade! Your mama shoulda asked not to mess with this chawl!

‘White facade’ here, stands for Nana Patekar’s role as a villain who wants to make the city clean and... ’pure’. He wears white and white and hates black. You get the picture. While ‘Katravai Patravai’ is loaded with references to the chawl, and discrimination on the basis of caste and colour, it’s not the most political song of the jukebox.

That would be, ‘Urimai Meetpom’ (We shall reclaim our rights).

Reclaim Our Rights

Someone sowed it
Someone harvested it
Grew it, ideologically
While he writhed in hunger

Systematically, hereditarily
Through many ways, through language and caste
He was cut off, and today
He stands tall

‘Urimayai Meetpom’ (We Shall Reclaim our Rights) is a one-of-a-kind song. Musically, it seems to combine Mongol chants with Pakistani Sufi rock.

The lyrics speak powerfully to the institution of caste through the metaphor a farmer’s relationship with land. The land that one is on, is also an extension of one’s identity, and often contributes to it. Sung powerfully by Vijayprakash and Ananthu, the song then moves towards more generic themes of revolution, unity and a ‘home’ (society) without doors, that remains ever free.

Now onto some romance, with Kannamma Kannamma!

Formulaic Song that Works Wonderfully

Kannamma (apple of my eye) is that Santhosh Narayanan song sung by Pradeep that leaves you with a feeling of melancholy.

You’ll find it in Attakathi, Pa Ranjith’s first film, as the song ‘Aasai Or Pulveli’.

You’ll find it in Madras, Pa Ranjith’s second film, as the song ‘Aagayam thee pudicha’.

You’ll find it in Kabali, Pa Ranjith’s third film, as the song ‘Maya Nadhi’ (Jadoo Rawa Rawa).

It’s formulaic, and the tunes have some similarity to them, in that they seem to belong to the same ‘family’, if you know what I mean.

The song is sung by Pradeep Kumar who always seems to have a beautifully nuanced interpretation of the tune in the way he modulates. Female vocals are by Dhee, who is a debutante. She is Ananthu’s daughter. Ananthu has given background vocals for this song. You may recognise him from Jaadu Rawa Rawa, in which he sings the refrain.

Now, back to the agitation.

We Will Revolt! Dopeadelicz

What’s more interesting than the lyrics in this song, are the rappers, a boy band who call themselves Dopaedelicz. I’ll leave it to you to figure out how to pronounce this one.

Born and raised in Dharavi, this group of young musicians are multilingual, in that they speak Tamil at home, Hindi and Marathi outside and learn English in school. Their rap lyrics too reflect this mixture of languages.

Influenced by the Marley Family, Tupac and Snoop Dogg (now Snoop Lion), this band features in another song in the album, which is wonderfully peppy;

Nikkal Nikkal!

Set in the typical ‘Dappankuthu’ genre, this song uses the ‘thaarai thappattai’ drums, made of cow or buffalo hyde that are famously used in every Dalit celebration, and also for funerals. It is an instrument of the street play, of revolution, of the fisherfolk, and the urban poor. That it originated in the villages of rural Tamil Nadu is now a distant memory, unless a movie with that specific theme rejigs this fact.

‘Are we still slaves to cower and live in hiding? We will take courage and face you forward. How long will you beat the stomachs of the poor to increase your bank balance...’

‘Nikkal Nikkal’ is half Tamil and half Marathi. It’s upbeat and has more to do with challenging an opponent than political innuendo. Of all of the songs in Kaala that call for a revolution or agitation (of which there are one too many), this one is the sunniest.

Welcome to My Hood!

Another song by Dopeadelicz, this one’s probably for a montage on the Chawls of Dharavi. It’s under three minutes long and is a full on Tamil rap song by the band. The lyrics are descriptive;

Under the light of the streetlamp
we will move ahead and soar
Though we live in poverty
We will make history in this city
‘Wecome to my hood’
This is our place
Though we live above the sewer
Our hearts are pure
....
Beyond caste and religion
We live as one on the streets
....
Here there’s a hip-hop culture

Kabali 2.0?

The Dalit undertones of Kabali were unmissable. With Kaala though, Pa Ranjith has made it the subject of the story. Through a jukebox of nine songs, he has laid bare the philosophy of the film, and it’s politics.

In a series of films from the late 60s up until the 80s, MGR used cinema to woo different sections of the working class; rickshaw-walas, fisherfolk, factory workers, farmers and so on.

In the same manner, Rajinikanth too has essayed the role of an Autowallah (Baasha), factory worker (Mannan), Milkman (Annamalai) and finally as a leader beyond employment in Padayappa, Sivaji, Kabali and now Kaala.

But what sets the music and lyrics of Kaala apart is the directness of the message. The political undertones even up until Sivaji were to be ‘understood’ by the public, through a fourth-wall-breaking wink.

But with Kaala, he lives and breathes a character who is bound to a particular caste, speaks in their unique dialect, and fights for their rights. A more direct platform for politics than this, is hard to come by.

But the superstar himself said at the audio launch, 'the time has not yet come.’

Are we to read this as, ‘it is now only a matter of time?’ I guess only time will tell.

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