Grammy winner A.R. Rahman recreates old song and the Indian web explodes

The 1994 song has been reimagined for MTV Unplugged.
 By 
Sohini Mitter
 on 
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Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Indian music maestro and Academy Award-winner A.R. Rahman is mesmerizing audiences yet again. This time, with a new version of his 1994 hit song "Urvasi Urvasi."

The reinvented track was revealed by MTV India on its Facebook page to tease the new season of its popular show, Unplugged.

Unsurprisingly, the video has gone viral, notching up more than 3 million views in quick time.

The song is in Tamil, Rahman's native language, and is set to meticulous percussion along with Indian and Western string arrangements that give it a distinct fusion feel.

The composer himself leads the vocals, but the song's most interesting bit are its lyrics, which have been crowdsourced.

It touches upon contemporary issues like Donald Trump becoming president and India rendering old currency notes useless. And the political commentary is weaved around the song's original hook line, "take it easy".

Listeners can't stop playing it on loop, of course. Here's what some of them are saying.

Rahman is one of a kind. And we know it.

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Sohini Mitter

India staff at Mashable. Formerly with Forbes India magazine and The Financial Express newspaper.

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