Mann Mein Shiva

Shiva? Isn’t that a God in Hinduism?

I came across this wonderful song while scrolling through the infamous Instagram “Explore” page at around midnight a couple of weeks ago. It was in one of those videos of a Bollywood fan account, and it presented the last thirty seconds of the song. Thank Shiva I clicked on that video.

The first thirty seconds of the song is like any other upbeat song about warriors and pride. There’s rhythmic drumming, throwing the listener into an atmosphere of intimidation (sort of reminds me of Malhari and Khalibali). What gets me out of my computer chair every single time is at the end of the 30th second, where Arjun (I will be crediting the verses to the actors, even though it should go to the wonderful lyricists) says the following:

कल जो दुश्मन यहां थे
आज पीछे हटे हैं

Now, I am not Indian. I am from Bangladesh, the small country right next to India so pardon my upcoming translation. I interpret it as:

The enemies of yesterday, are now standing in front of you

I still don’t understand why that makes me start frantically pacing back and forth in my kitchen, mouthing the verse as if I am Arjun himself. The verse does make sense to me though. I’ve made a lot of enemies in my life, often through my own weaknesses or through some unfortunate series of events. However, I’ve reconciled with most of them and in fact some of them are the friends that I talk to in school everyday.

Let’s talk about the climax of the song. In what seems to be an union of camaraderie, trust, and optimism, Arjun and his warrior friends chant the following:

तेरे मन्न में शिवा
मेरे मानन में शिवा
साँसों में शिवा
प्राणों में शिवा
हर घडी में शिवा
हर दिशा में शिवा
आज गूँजा हुआ है
जय जय शिवा

Wow! What seemed to me a song on companionship is more so an integration of religion and warrior life. It makes sense, as many fighters in what I’m assuming to be an ancient India often fight under the name of their religion. Shiva is the god of destruction, an omnipotent deity tasked with looking after the universe. Therefore it makes sense for the chant Praise Mahadev (Mahadev is another name for Shiva) to be spouted by Arjun and his comrades.

It doesn’t end there though. What’s adding on to the warrior-religion dynamic in the song is, not surprisingly, love. In the last minute of the song, the part that attracted me in the first place, a brief duet between Kriti Sanon and Arjun is presented.

I think of it as Kriti responding to the Shiva in your mind that’s chanted by Arjun throughout the entire song. Perhaps Arjun was waiting for a voice back, like a whale does when mating. He could also be saying that even though his enemies are different from him, they all have something in common, and that is the presence of Shiva in their minds.

Either ways, I found this warrior-religion-love trifecta to be beautiful. Arjun has outdone himself in his acting for this song and I hope to see more good things come from him. Whenever I’m feeling a bit lethargic, I lighten my mood up by listening to Mann Mein Shiva. Maybe you should do.