Life is the inspiration for most song writers. Well, at least for Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam, who’s also known by her stage name M.I.A. (expanded to read ‘Missing In Acton/Action’). The Sri Lankan-British rapper-song-writer’s second studio album “Kala” is as hard-hitting as her first “Arula,” and has earned her glowing reviews and a five-star status from The Guardian and The Rolling Stone magazine, and is fast climbing the international charts.

If the lyrics are tinged with politics and her personal strife, the music itself is a fusion of various world genres __ Indian film music, Aboriginal notes, Jamaican dance hall moves and even Japanese influences. The album comes after Maya, described as having “a unique voice unafraid to mix big issues with cool sounds,” travelled across the globe and toured countries such as India, Jamaica, Japan, Australia and Malaysia.

Lend a ear to “Jimmy Jimmy”, which is a reworking of the old Hindi number of the same name composed by Bappi Lahiri for “Disco Dancer” (yeah, the film that saw the birth of India’s own John Travolta, Mithun Chakraborty). The lyrics may leave you befuddled, but the music still haunts you. The video has Maya gyrating to the music dressed up in an Indian costume. The Bollywood influence is quite visible here.
Tamil roots

Her Tamil roots come to the fore in a couple of numbers. If you listen very closely to “Bamboo Banga”, you can hear samples of a song from “Dalapathi”. And tappan koothu beats feature prominently in “Boyz”.

Maya, who was to record the album with hotshot producer Timbaland (responsible for the success of Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake, to name a couple) in the U.S., was denied entry into the country thanks to her father’s political connections. And all the misery is there for people to hear in her compositions in “Kala”, which incidentally is named after her mother as a tribute to the sacrifices she made for her daughter.

Maya was first noticed when she released “Arula” in 2005. She exuded exotica simply because of her background. Here was a young British-born girl, who spent all her childhood just trying to stay alive. Her father was a Sri Lankan Tamil activist, whom she never knew. She had witnessed violence too closely as a child. Says Maya, “Being shot at wasn’t even the main thing in Sri Lanka. By the time I was 10, I had seen people get killed and my school had been burnt down. Our houses would get extra bombed and the people in our neighbourhood would get extra tortured and the Army would come round and beat my mum up, because of … this mythical dad figure I never had.” And during those days of strife and struggle, she even lived in Chennai for a while, after fleeing Sri Lanka.

It’s sheer determination that saw this youngster fight her way to the top. Today, she has a label of her own and is a crowd puller wherever she performs. Her records have brought her plenty of awards and critical acclaim. And yes, she has found an opportunity to work with well-known rappers such as Diplo and Gwen Stefani, the lead singer of the band, No Doubt.

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