Song check: A search for the self in AR Rahman’s ‘Wako Naam Fakir’ from ‘The Fakir of Venice’

AR Rahman and co-singers Arjun Chandy and Abhay Jodhpurkar turn 15th-century poet Kabir’s doha Had-had Tape So Auliya into a blues song for Anand Surapur’s The Fakir of Venice.

The video of the song, Wako Naam Fakir, gives glimpses of the film’s central characters, played by Farhan Akhtar and Annu Kapoor, getting by and through Venice where the film is set. Akhtar’s Adi tries to pass off a Mumbai slum resident, played by Kapoor, as a holy man who can bury himself in sand as part of a live art performance.

Scripted by Rajesh Devraj (Gold) from a story by Homi Adajania (Finding Fanny, Cocktail), the film was premiered at the Indian Film Festival in Los Angeles in 2009. It is finally getting a release on January 18.