Coke Studio is now in Bangladesh, and the popular Bangla folk song Allah Megh De is among the first singles to emerge out of Season 1. YouTube just dropped this in my watch list on All Fools Day, and the sound’s addictive!

I’ve run it at least half a dozen times ever since, while riding, walking and driving. And every time I listen to it, something new comes up.

What first struck me was the sheer aural richness that the Indian sub-continent has. What a gorgeous part of the world we live in. 🙂

Take a bow, Coke Studio Bangla.

And then, on a ride earlier today, I was thinking about how much visual heft Coke Studio adds to every song, and how these visuals make a song all the more appealing.

Watching music made, rather than just listening to it, is all the more mesmerizing. More so, if there’s so much beauty and human emotion in the visuals.

Visually appealing music: Music on turbo boost!

Now typically, I hit the comments section after loving something I just listened to. It wasn’t any different this time around. I could see people loved this track. I – like many commenters – would love a translation.

Just to go deeper into the sound.

Some random searching on YouTube, and I stumbled upon the same song composed 50 years ago by legendary Indian singer-music director, SD Burman.

The sound had Ram, Shyam and Allah in the lyrics. Yes, Allah, Ram and Shyam, in one song. And it featured in the iconic Indian movie, Guide.

Somehow, I find the song composed by SD Burman to be in sharp contrast to the times we live in.

Would SD Burman have penned the same lyrics had he been in today’s India? I’m not so sure.

Could Coke Studio Bangla have adopted SD Burman’s lyrics in their launch song? Fat chance, given Bangladesh’s cultural climate now.

Or were they just playing safe? Prarthona can mean many things. \m/