De ghuma ke… Countdown to World Cup begins today

The song,according to the composers,avoids both the cliches of patriotism and run-of-the-mill Bollywood beats for a “fun and funky tune” with a “folksy feel and a hint of rustic Punjabi”. The song will be performed at the opening ceremony in Bangladesh.

“It uses a lot of colloquialisms like jiyo khiladi wahe wahe and has a rousing quality. It incorporates an array of Indian rhythms,as well as a lot of rock and hip-hop,” said Ehsaan Noorani.

The phrase de ghuma ke was initially put in by Mahadevan as dummy lyrics to the melody,but ended up getting stuck to the song. “We discussed some ideas with the ICC… but the overall energy of de ghuma ke turned out to be the best,” Noorani said.

As the tempo picks up,the song breaks into the lines aasmaan mein maar ke dubki,uda de ja suraj ki jhapki and sarr se cheer ke hawa ka parda,baandh le patthe jaan ka garda…

The song has been sung by Mahadevan along with 13-year-old Mumbai-based singer Divya Kumar,whom he picked out from a popular reality show on which he was a judge.

The composers were contacted by the International Cricket Council three months ago. Manoj Yadav,a 34-year-old budding Bollywood lyricist,submitted the lyrics to them earlier this week.

“ICC was very clear about refraining from using terms that related to cricket and patriotism. I was told to adopt a metaphorical approach for the song and I stuck to that,” said Yadav,who has freelanced with O&M,and written the lyrics for Andy DeEmmony’s upcoming West is West,a sequel to the British comedy drama East is East.

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy said the tepid response to Rahman’s Commonwealth Games song doesn’t worry them. “Making music is a spontaneous creative process and I am sure Rahman had a vision to his song. Our song has gone through three filters. That generally takes care of popularity issues,” said Noorani.