In the internet era, there is no limit to the ways one can pay homage to their favourite artists. Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated images of artists imagined in various scenarios, remixes of popular artists’ songs, ‘fan edits’ of scenes from movies — you name it, the internet has it all. In a similar vein, fans of AR Rahman devised a rare way of paying tribute to the ‘Oscar nayagan’ and his music. Twitter is known for its divisive nature and fights over ‘hot takes’ but for once, people were arguing over which song of AR Rahman’s was the best. How were these fights carried out? Memes, video edits, and long Twitter threads in defence of a song, among others.
It all started when Runcil Rebello, who goes by the Twitter handle @MrNarci, created #ARRHindiBracket along with two other Twitter users Priyanka (@peeekaaaaa) and Manx (@PermanentManx). After an elaborate seeding process that nominated 128 of AR Rahman’s ‘best’ Hindi songs, the voting began. The songs were pitted against each other in the form of Twitter polls and users could vote for their favourite. After a long drawn battle with fierce campaigning, memes, Twitter threads that could pass off as think pieces, the voting concluded and the #ARRHindiBracket declared “Chaiyya Chaiyya” as the best Hindi song by the composer.
Inspired by the Hindi bracket, Tamil Twitter decided to have one of their own. Except, the Tamil bracket was two times larger than the Hindi version — it featured 256 songs seeded by Sri (@YouGoManWhyMe) along with two of her Twitter friends — Abi (@abs19931) and Ajai (@ajaideoesnttweet). Speaking to TNM, Sri said, “I participated actively in the Hindi bracket. When “Chanda Re” was polled against “Telephone Dhun Mein" and Hindi Twitter was divided, we wondered what would happen if “Venillave Venillave” went against “Telephone Manipol” in Tamil Twitter.”
The selection process was a meticulous one for Tamil Twitter. The three ‘bracketeers’ came up with lists of what they thought were the best songs of AR Rahman after listening to his entire discography in Tamil, and compared notes to shortlist the ones that made it to the polls. Sri said, “We tried to ensure that there was a balance between popular songs and underrated gems. We also wanted to make sure the songs were spread across albums, decades, and genres.”
The nomination process was different in the Hindi bracket. Speaking to TNM, Runcil said that the initial plan was to go by YouTube views of the songs, but he felt that it was not ideal because some of Rahman’s most iconic songs would be left out. He said, “We then did a draft pick; I went first, Priyanka second, Manx third, but we’d do a reverse on the next three, so Manx got fourth, Priyanka got fifth, and I got sixth. We continued this process till we reached 128 songs.”
For both groups of ‘bracketeers’, the best parts of undertaking the massive task were the memes and people discovering (and re-discovering) some of AR Rahman’s best songs. Sri said, “So many people remarked how they re-discovered some songs and albums due to the bracket. This was our main goal, to be honest. And of course, the friendships we forged during the course of the bracket.”
The bracket was not limited to voting for the songs but also involved campaigns for and against the songs that were picked. Voters came up with inventive nicknames for groups of people who voted for a particular song or songs featuring certain movies. For instance, in the Hindi bracket, fans of Ranbir Kapoor who voted for songs featuring the actor were called ‘Ranbircels’ (one would like to believe that it is loosely based on the term ‘incels’) while those who voted for “Masakali” were termed the ‘pigeon gang’. Tamil Twitter proved no less in this regard. People who voted for “Dandiya Aattam”, “Kuchi Kuchi Rakkama”, and “Uppu Karuvaadu” were nicknamed the 'kuchi' (stick) gang because these songs featured sticks in their lyrics or the videos.
No discourse on Twitter can happen without a war of words, subtweeting, and trolling (that escalates to harassment quickly), and unfortunately, the brackets were no different. The Tamil bracket had to remove “Aalaporan Tamizhan”, a song from Vijay's Mersal, despite it winning in the polls because of the actor's fans' behaviour. Speaking about this choice, Sri said that “Aalaporan Tamizhan” was winning because it was popular but voters assumed that Vijay fans hijacked the polls. Sri believes that people who weren't fans of the actor also voted for the song. This assumption (and subsequent tweets) were not received well by Vijay fans. Sri said, "Some fans misinterpreted a meme we shared that asked the trailing song to fight back and started quoting the poll with abuses and threats. This continued even after the results were declared and “Aalaporan Tamizhan” won. We could not mass block accounts that indulged in trolling so we had to remove the songs, because it was affecting our and the voters' mental health. We did it with a heavy heart but we had no choice."
As of now, “Mukkala Mukkabala” and “Urvasi Urvasi”, both from Kaadhalan, are competing neck to neck for the final spot. “Yaakai Thiri” from Ayudha Ezhuthu and “Pachai Nirame” from Alaipayuthe are competing for the third place. When asked if Tamil Twitter would be divided over the results, Sri laughingly said, "Definitely not! I feel like fans of melodies will be disappointed if a peppy song wins and vice-versa. And the fact that even we don't know which song is going to win makes it all the more interesting!"