By SHEIKH ABDUR REHMAN (23100194)
This song was released in 2015 in the movie named "Roy," starring Ranbir Kapoor and Jacqueline Fernandez as lead actors. Moreover, this song is one of many problematic songs out there focusing on racism and objectification.
Song link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpsVpnvFfZQ&ab_channel=T-Series
This is also a very famous wedding song and we see it being played in almost all wedding functions, but people do not pay attention to the problematic lyrics of this song.
This song was featured by "Kanika Kapoor" who is an Indian singer. Lyrics of this song were written by Kumaar, who is an Indian song composer.
The problematic lyrics of the song are:
"Chittiyan kalaiyan ve
O baby meri white kalaiyaan ve
Chittiyan kalaiyan ve
O baby meri tere hisse aayiaan ve"
Like what was the composer thinking of while writing this song? This song is definitely implying that white wrists are an epitome of beauty. The composer of the song here is implicitly mentioning that black wrists, brown wrists are inferior by focusing on "Chittiyan kalaiyan." The way racism is promoted through this song is in front of us. This song might have made those people feel inferior who do not have white wrists or do not have a fair complexion. Such songs should not be promoted on international levels. This colourism approach should be stopped and we should appreciate everyone for their existence irrespective of their colour. In the youtube video link, it is evident from the comments of majority of the people that they liked the song and only a few people have mentioned about racism. It is a very important time to educate people to get out of this fair complex race and be what they actually are.
There is another line in the song, which is as follows:
"You’re my darling angel baby
White kalaiyaan drives me crazy
Shiney eyes glitty-glitty glittery
You’re the like that makes me going hazy"
The singer is now objectifying white wrists, and how they drive him crazy. I would say that how one can be drived crazy through white wrists??? This is a problem not only with this song but hundreds of songs out there. Objectification of body parts is absolutely wrong and this must be avoided in all conditions. The problem is that these types of issues do not seem as issues to major chunk of public, and we need to school such people on the highest priority about objectification, racism, and lot of other topics so that our society can live in peace and harmony in which one becomes a target of objectification and racism.