Dial a Tamil friend to hear Chammak Challo...

Of late, Chennaiites seem to have taken a liking to Hindi songs, even if they are clueless about what the songs mean.The change is evident because Chennaiites have reached a stage where they have catchy Hindi tunes as their callertunes.  Ismail, an engineer, has been using the title song of Shah Rukh Khan’s 2006-hit Don as ringtone for five years now. He has no plans to change it to anything else, despite the fact that he listens to other hit songs from Hindi movies such as Gangster and Fanaa. He says, “In 2006, I happened to watch Shah Rukh Khan’s Don. I didn’t understand the film or the language, but I loved the title song from the movie. Since then, I’ve been using that song as callertune in  my cellphone. Though I don’t understand the lyrics, the sound and the music entertain me.”Using Hindi songs as callertunes or ringtones, Ismail says, has made people notice it and get their attention. “You won’t believe it, but some of my colleagues have asked me to share this song, so that they can use it as a callertune as well,” he laughs.  Priya, who works as a catalogue associate and uses Hindi songs as ringtones and callertunes, believes that music, in general, cuts across all barriers of language and culture. “Whenever I watch a Hindi movie with my friends, I download the songs which I like. The sub-titles helped me understand the songs. But anyway, it’s the music that draws me to it, even though I don’t know the language,” she says. Another Chennaiite Gautam Karthik too got hooked to a slow Hindi number Kahin to.. from Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na three months ago. “This is the first time, I’ve used a Hindi song as a callertune. I borrowed it from a friend who had the same callertune. It’s such a subtle and soothing song. It works as a balm and doesn’t change the moods compared to other callertunes, which may be irritating sometimes.” College student Nivi has callertunes of popular Hindi songs listed for each of the people she’s in touch with. For example, for her mother, she has a callertune of the song Maa from Taare Zameen Par.  “For my friends, I’ve this song Roobaroo from Rang De Basanti because it is a nice friendship song. It may seem funny, but it’s true,” she says.