Manikya Malaraya Poorvi featuring Priya Prakash Varrier and Roshan Abdul Rahoof showed us how cute flirting can get and our lives changed forever. Most of us spent time in school looking awkward and weird when our crush was around while the two characters in the film showed us how flirting is done. The song is a viral hit.
But this song’s popularity came along with a price. A Muslim group has filed an FIR against the makers of the song and the film it is from claiming that the music video hurts religious sentiments. How, you may ask? The lyrics of this ditty talk about Prophet Mohammad and his wife Khadijah Bivi. While the Muslim group who has filed a complaint has said they have no problem with the song but the music video does not go with the dignity of the lyrics. Now, our non-Malayali readers might be wondering what the fuss is about, so we are here to decode the lyrics of the song, in our best of capacity.
First of all, Manikya Malaraya Poovi is not an original score composed by Shan Rahman. It is a remake of a popular P M A Jabbar’s track Mappilla, which came out years ago. In fact, there have been several remakes of the song including one by Moosa Eranjoli. The one from the movie Oru Adaar Love is only a more stylised version of the ditty.
Now let us move on to the meaning of Manikya Malaraya Poovi. As per a report by Scroll.in, the lyrics describe Khadeeja Biwi or Khadija bint Khuwaylid, the first wife and follower of Prophet Muhammad, calling her the woman like a pearl flower. The original song also talks about how Khadija sent a representative to the Prophet’s uncle Abu Talib, as a formal proposal, who promptly gave his consent. The song ends with their wedding.
Here is one version of the song
Here is another
The song originates from a genre called Mappila Pattu which is popular in North Kerela where it is a folk song crooned at weddings and functions. Dialect of the song is a mix of Arabic and Malayalam. Urdu, Tamil and Persian are the languages used for the lyrics. Songs of this genre, Mapilla Pattu, are often sang in praises of religious figures.
Do you know something about the song that we don’t know? Tell us in comments below. We’d love to hear from you.