Music has the power to transport a listener to another realm, akin to what the Ancient One does to Dr Strange, hurtling him through multiple dimensions. It can also pull one back to reality and ground them—a reminder of what Kate Bush's voice does to Max back in Stranger Things 4. However, ‘Oorum Blood’ is a different kind of force altogether. It's a shapeshifter—newcomer Sai Abhyankkar's very own Mystique that has amassed over 100 million views in less than three months. But the success story of its meteoric rise remains as mystical as the song itself.
The last few months have been an indefinite blur, with ‘Oorum Blood’ dominating streaming platforms; it would be an understatement to say that at least every social media user in India and parts of the world would have caught on to the madness of it at least once. More than his debut movie, Balti, ‘Oorum Blood’ has made larger waves, aptly living up to its title. While armchair critics came for him, memes surfed across the wave to point out that the song is truly a one-size-fits-all emotion, much like its usage in its parent film, Dude, directed by Keerthiswaran. Be it Pradeep Ranganathan walking in suaveness personified, or him looking at Mamitha Baiju’s character Kural endearingly, or when he bashes up goons, or him lamenting — Sai comes in with one more iteration of ‘Oorum Blood.’ If the iterations from the film, and the reels on social media weren't enough, you also had various reimaginations of iconic scenes from Padayyapa, Baahubali, and even Avengers, having Sai's ‘Oorum Blood’ flowing in the background, and the best part? It was perfectly in sync.
Honestly, virality isn't new to Sai. Even before he started composing for feature films, his singles ‘Aasa Kooda’ and ‘Katchi Sera’ achieved insane numbers and put him on the global map. But ‘Oorum Blood’ is a case study. The song came at a time when social media wasn't exactly appreciative of this untested composer signing really big-scale projects with an enviable star cast. Some termed it as privilege because he is the son of established singers Tippu and Harini. Some called it ‘luck by chance’. Some voices said that this over-reliance on one composer will backfire, and then there were others who said composers without much backing in the industry would never get so many opportunities. Nevertheless, his name was everywhere. Then came the song, and that was everywhere, too. The eclectic number had multiple layers to it. There was a rap, a melody, a mass-y portion, and whatnot. It steadily clocked in a million views per day. The reels were being made in hundreds, and that number tripled after Dude’s release. Just when the voices of disapproval about these layers, and the seemingly misheard lyrics started getting louder, Sai released an unplugged version of the same, which became a different rage altogether.
Dhanush had recently revealed how ‘Kolaveri Di’ (2011) was made as an ‘accident’ and how the team thought that it would be a ‘fun’ thing to release it online as an amateur studio video. The rest was history. With simple English lyrics and catchy music, the song became a global sensation. It became its own beast a decade before reels and shorts became the source of the proliferation of a song’s momentum. It brought home the idea that the lyrics didn't always matter to the global village. The song was parodied, recreated, and even reached far-off places like a nightclub in Tokyo. Before ‘Kolaveri Di,’ there was ‘Nakka Mukka’. And now, it is ‘Oorum Blood’, for an era where sensory overload dominates musical storytelling, and every new turn is met with a traffic of sounds. It is almost a love letter for the attention-deficit Gen-Z audience from a composer born in the same generation; The same era that loves a remixed version of Ilaiyaraaja’s ‘Karutha Machan’ and Darkkey Nagaraja’s high-intensity ‘AK the Tiger’. The love-hate relationship that has fuelled the virality behind ‘Oorum Blood’ is also partially attributed to social media’s relentless pursuit of thrusting its audiences with a song, adding innumerable hashtags, and many times, actually manufacturing virality. But all said and done, 'Oorum Blood’ seems to have survived and thrived, and many who were humming ‘Ammadiyo needhaan...innum siru pillai...,’ have found solace in the words, ‘Unna thaana paathuka, naa inga kaathiruken...’
Through all of this, Sai has remained zen-like through multiple interviews that have been spending a fair amount of time deconstructing the phenomenon of ‘Oorum Blood’. Interestingly, a decade back, Anirudh, who broke through the collective consciousness of a music-loving audience with a viral hit, too faced this line of questioning. We know where he is today, and it would be interesting to see where Sai goes from here.
Tamil cinema has been enriched by the music of legends like Ilaiyaraaja, AR Rahman, Harris Jayaraj, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Deva and Vidyasagar, among others. They have maintained a strong grip on the cultural pulse. It is definitely early days for Sai Abhyankkar, but it would be foolish to dismiss the phenomenon of his ‘Oorum Blood’ as a one-hit wonder. He knows and thrives in Gen-Z-coded music, and caters to his fellow Gen-Z audience, who make up almost 30 percent of the Indian population. Make no mistake, the song is a pop-culture-defining moment in Kollywood. So if you find yourself breaking into ‘En moochava pechava…’ or ‘Thottale pattasa naan…’, don't fret... You have entered the Sai Abhyankkar-fication of new-age cinema, and resistance is futile and frankly, unnecessary.