Why ‘Kala Chashma’ has the world in thrall
The ‘trending’ Punjabi number urges us to view cultural diplomacy through rose-tinted glasses.
If you have recently been tempted to fall on your knees and hands, raise your torso in cat-camel style for thumping dance moves, blame the go-to viral of the week: Kala Chashma.
Salted and suited for a wedding dance by Norwegian hip hop dance group Quick Style; “fallen for” in dramatic hilarity by The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon and singer Demi Lovato, improvised with giggling gaiety by the Indian cricket team last week, our black chashma is back with a glare. If you ever spent 51 seconds of your life debating the “essential” difference between TikTok and Instagram reels, consider it officially wasted. Kala Chashma videos are trending on both with similar choreographic enthusiasm.
It helps that the word “trending” exists in the free-for-all, pop culture dictionary to unpack what’s going on. There is no other way to describe the riotous Kala Chashma cocktail by SmashTalentKidsAfrica who give Katrina ‘Kay’, cricketer Shikhar Dhawan and assorted Jane Bens of the world a run for their twirls. How else must we explain actor Ayushmann Khurana’s “Chandigarh chashmapanti” with his gang in typical Punjabi UnZen to celebrate India’s cricket win over Pakistan? Trending helps make sense of the free for use remixes and we-mixes of Kala Chashma on the internet (in private onyx bathrooms too, who knows) by gym enthusiasts or kitty party ladies in redolent red saris.
Cross-country, cross-cultural, community-neutral, across demographics and class barriers. In sizes XS to Plus Plus. In bathroom chappals and sneakers. In suits and boots. In blinding lehengas and blingy saris, Kala Chashma’s global styling has added a walk-in wardrobe to Katrina Kaif’s original jhatak gold choli-red navvari sari and green bindi look. It even triggers a re-see for actor Siddharth Malhotra recently parked outside mainstream attention.
With Amul Butter’s ‘Kala Chashma, Peela Makhna’ ad (sunglass brands should kick themselves) the Amar Arshi-sung ditty, originally a Punjabi song from the 1990s, (reportedly first written by a police officer) which was remixed for the film ‘Baar Baar Dekho’ in 2016, has become truly baar baar dekho. See again and again.
The ‘original’ film song (what can be more original than a Bollywood item song) on YouTube has 1.2 billion views while Quick Style’s Norwegian interpretation had 49 million views on last count. The recent one by African kids already has one more than 4 million views on Instagram, more than 317,000 likes and comments that plunder the Dictionary of Social Media Un-imagination—awesome, insane, amazing, cute… Red heart emojis have been manufactured in millions without Chinese imports. That’s saying something.
Okay. My intention was not to wax. Let us take off the rose-tinted glasses for a moment. The addictive fandom for Punjabi music across the world needs an examination yet again, as different from Rajasthani folk songs or the Gujarati garba, which too have been set to pulsating funkiness in Bollywood music. Punjabi music though, especially bhangra, was in the world’s discotheques for years before social media dance clubs fell in love with it. Like reggae or African beats, it has been an established agent provocateur for social dancing. British-Punjabi or Canadian-Punjabi singers are legit music celebs like their globally travelling prajis — Mika Singh, Yo Yo Honey Singh, Gurdas Mann or Guru Randhawa to name some. The animated music they create has so much compelling somatic energy that it makes us turn a blind eye to the ordinariness of lyrics — “tenu kala chashma jachda ae” (sunglasses really suit you) is an excellent example. Road Romeo poetry set to terrific music.
Yet, despite much socio-cultural writing on the intoxicating enjoyment of Bollywood item songs and their choreographic cheesiness, this particular surge of Kala Chashma is a sign of cultural diplomacy’s new face. Especially those renditions without a filmy, fat, Indian wedding with dozens of designer lehengas in the backdrop. We can finally delink it from Indian matchmaking designer boutiques. Groove to it outside a hut, in a hotel, or on a yoga mat. If countries were to compete through dance challenges and Kala Chashma was the win or lose song, we can no longer assume that an Indian would win. This global ownership of an Indian-Punjabi-filmi song is so cool.
No tug of war has emerged so far on who is really behind Kala Chashma’s infectious DNA. Whose music is it or if the song’s choreography for the film was copyrighted. Unlike the “legal, philosophical, moral” concerns of acknowledgement raised around American singer-songwriter Beyonce’s recent ‘Renaissance’, Kala Chashma is out there, free to shake and remake. Not so cool.
Anyway, singer Amar Arshi and dance throb Katrina Kaif deserve retro-fitted awards for this. They might want to dedicate the trophy to Punjab police’s lyrical officer?