सोमवार, अप्रैल 18, 2011

A Song that rocked a Nation - Chhaiyyan Chhaiyyan... [The curious case of Briptu Norman Kamaru]

Two weeks ago, Briptu Norman Kamaru was an ordinary cop with a mobile police brigade in Gorantalo, a province in Sulawesi, Indonesia. It was a personal pleasure moment caught on the camera which turned Norman Kamaru into a style statement and a nation wide figure, courtesy the social media tools. In the space of just a few days, the funny little cop turned into a dancing super cop and the entire nation of Indonesia is swinging with him.

What made it possible was a famous Bollywood song penned by Gulzar saab, sung by Sukhwinder Singh & Sapna Awasthi, composed by AR Rahman, picturised on Shahrukh Khan & Malaika Arora and choreographed by Farah Khan.. Yes you guessed it right.. its ever popular "Chhaiyyan Chhaiyyan" from Dil Se.. What Norman Kamaru did is, lip synced and danced to the audio of Chhaiyyan Chhaiyyan and made a video for friends that was uploaded on Youtube. The funny video immediately caught attention of many.. Justin Bieber, Rebecca Black & now Norman Kamaru was already a YouTube star just in a couple of days (in Indonesia ofc)

The most significant aspect of the video was that it was captured when Norman Kamaru was on official duty and was in official police dress in presence of other staff at the police station.

Once the video became popular, the senior officials immediately took it seriously and threatened to suspend him with immediate affect. Also the Chief of mobile brigade tried to crack down on the video uploader.. The action of senior police officials created a nation wide wave in favor of Norman Kamaru with people all around nation (also politicians joined it) reacted strongly opposing any action and justified Kamaru's actions. The wave was so strong in favor so that the officials had to revoke the punishment. (Watch the original video)



[At the time of writing the video has already received close to two million hits, last night it was one million, cumulatively speaking the video hits are more than 3.5 million, that just in last 14 days]

By now Norman Kamaru was already a super star (just in the space of 4-5 days, a Facebook fan site was setup which has 2.5 lac fans).. and Chhaiyyan Chhaiyaan was on the lips of all walks of citizens. He has already been invited to many Talk Shows (one of the talk shows (Bukan Empat) which was ranked 64 in TV ratings of Indonesia, jumped to Ist place after they invited Kamaru on the show). His own unit honored him & he got to perform in front of them officially. There are talks for many TV Shows, cutting of an album and even a film!







There are many significant aspects of his interesting story.. showing human side of police, unearthing of a superstar from nowhere, the power of social media tools & ofc supremacy of public. And the after effects are many, in Indonesia, you can find almost everyone singing Chhaiyyan Chhaiyyan, people from all walks of life, singing, playing & dancing on this .. There is a sharp rise in interest for Bollywood all over the country in last one week. The song is rocking the nation and one can also attribute a little to the magic of the sound of two words "Chhaiyyan Chhaiyyan"


(This is a real story shared by Sunjoy Shekhar (who lives in Indonesia and known for translating Gulzar saab's songs in to a book titled 100 lyrics) and he specifically mentions that everyone around him in Indonesia is so mad about Chhaiyya Chhaiyya, from his maid to his driver to almost everyone he see on street. The song is driving the entire nation crazy even today! keep an eye of the Youtube hits!!!)




Google Trends showing the rise in popularity in just two weeks..