JOIN USWords are the character of a song and ultimately that remains”. These words attributed to renowned lyricist Javed Akhtar greet you on opening the ‘About Us’ section on Dohaz website (http://dohaz.com/). Conceptualised by 24-year-old Somesh Chandran with the intention of providing a better understanding of songs we listen to, Dohaz combines technology and music and decodes lyrics of Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu songs.
Launched in April, the site is handled by a team of writers who decode songs on a daily basis. Easy to operate, users just need to select a song and click on the verse they require the meaning, context and trivia for.
“I created Dohaz so that I could engage with my favourite songs at a deeper level. However, I soon realised that there may be others like me who would like to discover new aspects about their favourite tracks. That’s when I figured I could put together a team and decode song lyrics,” he says.
“We view lyrics as puzzles and try and solve them. People have been decoding Shakespeare’s poetry for decades now. We figured we could adopt a similar approach to Indian music as well,” Mumbai-based Chandran tells Metrolife.
While the songs that feature on the site include those from Hindi movies, along with those by independent artists, there is also some poetry. Chandran says the team does not limit itself in anyway, and everything they like finds space on the site. “It’s purely instinctive,” he says.
Currently focused on Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu numbers, Chandran says they will move on to other languages “once we’re completely sure that we’ve perfected these”.
Over the months they have collaborated with artistes like Varun Grover, lyricist, Gangs of Wasseypur and even independent musicians.
“There’s so much talent in the independent scene that people need to discover. Like there’s this Urdu rapper called Naezy who we often collaborate with. If Gulzar was born in the 90s, this is what he would sound like. We’ve also collaborated with a band called Parvaaz that recently got voted as the best band in the country,” he says.
However, Hindi and Urdu are diverse languages when compared to English. So, isn’t looking for corresponding words in English a challenge?
“Agreed they are much more diverse, which is why we pay a lot of attention to the way we translate songs. We’ve realised it’s a very technical job as well. We make sure to use the correct conjunctions, prepositions, verbs and words, at the right places,” he says.