By Subhash K Jha

Shruti Haasan who divides her time between singing and acting in both Bollywood and the Chennai film industry is at the moment basking in the feeling of carrying global music a step ahead by recording an Assamese-Tamil song composed by young Joi Barua.

Barua who is from Assam is currently a Mumbai-based composer-singer closely associated with Anurag Kashyap's cinema. Joy has composed for Kashyap's Udaan and Dev D.

The idea of doing a song in Assamese and Tamil came to Joi through Shruti's father Kamal Haasan who is himself a firm believer in global art.

Says a source, `Joi was game to do a song that fused Tamil and Assamese lyrics. Since Shruti Haasan is a singer who defines borderless music, she was picked to sing the number. Joi wrote the Assamese words, and he wanted someone with a firm grasp over the Tamil vocabulary and syntax to do the Tamil lyrics. `

That's where Kamal Haasan stepped in by offering to write the Tamil lyrics.

Says Kamal Haasan, `It's my birthday gift to my daughter. As I turn older this week I feel closer to my children. Shruti is currently in that stage of life where I used to be 35 years ago. She's experimenting with various art forms, trying to find her bearings. `

Though Kamal Haasan has written lyrics for songs in his own films and has even sung for the Tamil star Ajith in a film, this is the first time he has done words for a song sung by his daughter. `The song is in Tamil and Assamese. The composer Joi Barua has written the Assamese words. I wrote the Tamil lyrics. This is actually my second cinematic collaboration with Shruti. In my film Hey Rama 12 years ago when she was still a child Shruti had sung a song composed by Ilaiyaraja. I just returned the compliment by doing the lyrics for her song. `