What does Rakita Rakita Rakita mean? Every time I hear this song from Karthik Subbaraj’s upcoming Jagame Thandhiram , Rakita sounds like r...
What does Rakita Rakita Rakita mean? Every time I hear this song from Karthik Subbaraj’s upcoming Jagame Thandhiram, Rakita sounds like racket-a, as if Santhosh Narayanan is egging everyone on to cause a racket. The folksy percussion, the horns, and the wry cheerfulness of the tune makes me want to enter the song and start dancing. And the bassline is quintessential Santhosh Narayanan.
But I don’t understand the lyrics. Can I racket-a or rock-it-a as well as Tamilian listeners? My first language is Bengali. I read and write English for a living. I understand Hindi because I couldn’t escape the language as a film lover living north of the Vindhyas. I understand snatches of Urdu because I follow Rekhta.org.
I don’t understand Tamil beyond onnu-rendu-moonu-naalu, vanakkam, akka, amma, and illai – all words I came to learn while living in Chennai some years ago. I know the difference between kadal and kaadhal, and often wonder if a lyricist has already rhymed “cuddle” with either word. Once I left Chennai, my awkward relationship with Tamil ended. But my fascination with Tamil pop bloomed into a love affair that’s still going strong.
Santhosh Narayanan, whom I discovered and listened to the most...
