{"id":4393,"date":"2016-05-08T19:27:35","date_gmt":"2016-05-08T13:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4393"},"modified":"2016-05-08T19:27:35","modified_gmt":"2016-05-08T13:57:35","slug":"anu-malik-consent-lets-play-holi-bollywood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=4393","title":{"rendered":"How To Understand Consent Through Anu Malik\u2019s \u201cDo Me a Favour, Let\u2019s Play Holi!\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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\npring is in the air, which means it\u2019s time for the flowers to bloom, the trees to grow verdant with foliage, and <\/span>Anu Malik<\/span><\/a> to resurface on our airwaves, asking for anyone listening to do him a favour and play Holi. Not many people want to play Holi with Malik, thanks to his past indiscretions \u2013 and also his tone of voice. To me, his voice sounds like the cheapest Sunday brunch in Lokhandwala where 50-year-old married uncles sporting deep V-necks and a crop of chest pubes get drunk enough to drive on watered-down liquor. How this voice and the throat from whence it came became an integral part of Bollywood\u2019s music scene deserves its own Netflix true crime documentary. <\/span>\n\nBut this isn\u2019t a takedown of Anu Malik, it is a critical analysis of his seminal work, \u201cDo Me a Favour, Let\u2019s Play Holi\u201d, a song that might someday be found by a future civilisation after the end of life as we know it. History textbooks of this time will contain references to the original inhabitants of Earth being a primitive race, which played a game called <\/span>Holi<\/span><\/a> with each other, but not before respectfully asking for consent. Until they find news reports of the accusations against Anu Malik, at least. <\/span>\n\nLet\u2019s break down the lyrics: The opening verse is reminiscent of every Bollywood Holi song from the \u201960s right up to the \u201990s. It follows the tried-and-tested theme of a guy on Holi, enforcing his right to cut loose and be the quintessential Lothario in laal on a day he thinks consent blindly ticked the \u201cI Agree\u201d box without actually reading the fine print. The lines, \u201cBheegi chunari yeh laal, de bhar pichkari daal, shaam nahi aaye\u201d employ innuendo to create the urgency to speed-mate, before the proverbial shaam of their lives arrives. It is this go-getter attitude that\u2019s putting the pop in our <\/span>population<\/span><\/a>. This verse ends with the ladies singing, \u201cBheegi chunari humaar,\u201d which is the Bollywood version of a wet t-shirt contest. This verse was overshadowed by the song\u2019s true turning point, where it went from ho-hum Holi song, to culturally significant landmark of pop prose. <\/span>\n\n\u201cDo me a favour, let\u2019s play Holi!\u201d What went through Anu Malik\u2019s mind as he wrote these seven words? How did he capture the zeitgeist of the early 2000s when the notion of <\/span>consent<\/span><\/a> was as nascent as the need to ask for it, with this innocuous request? The line gets even more complicated to unpack as you approach it from different angles. If Anu Malik asks you to play Holi with him in the forest, and no one\u2019s around, would you do him the favour? Or, once you do him the favour, does he intend to return it? How? <\/span>\n\n

At the end of it all, the girl\u2019s so worn down by the incessant requests to play some Holi that she professes to being a deewani all along.<\/p><\/blockquote> \n\nHis career is like that lift in the proverbial unchi building he sang about, bandh and hanging by a thread, so monetary remuneration is definitely off the table. But then again this was the early 2000s when whatever us <\/span>men<\/span><\/a> did to or for women, we rationalised as being for <\/span>their<\/span><\/i> own good. Thankfully times have changed, and whether we\u2019ve changed with them is a universally raging debate. Also, since he\u2019s asking for a favour in public, does societal pressure dictate you to bend to his will and partake in come rambunctious colourplay with Anu Malik? You hope so, don\u2019t you Anu?<\/span>\n\nBy now if you\u2019re thinking this song is more than its two-line hook you\u2019re probably wrong. Through the rest of the song, Malik builds a narrative about a guy who relentlessly courts a girl by asking her to play Holi with him. The girl is reluctant at first, but warms up to the charm and finally relents. Is it me, or did Anu just describe every Indian male\u2019s <\/span>dating<\/span><\/a> game in a nutshell?<\/span>\n\n