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In ‘Hawa Hawa’ song from Rockstar, the director Imtiaz Ali wanted to (a) use some elements of a Czeck folk story called ‘Sleepy John’ and (b) retain some gibberish that A R Rahman had used while composing the tune. THREAD 1/n 
It took Irshad Kamil 10 days — which is a “long time” according to him — to complete the lyrics of this song. 2/n
Kamli chose to focus on the queen instead of the eponymous lad. He retained few interesting things from the story: the queen used as many as twelve shoes every night, the king hired spies but no one could figure out where she eloped... 3/n
Until one day when a spy (aka Sleepy John) discovers that she descends into the Hell every night to dance with a crowd of devils!
रानी को घर से...
रातों को दोज़ख़ में जाते देखा 4/n
रानी को घर से...
रातों को दोज़ख़ में जाते देखा 4/n
In Rockstar, Heer frequently elopes from her home to party, visit night clubs, and literally dance with JJ, who is tangentially referred to (in the song) as the devil, perhaps due to the fact that he is having an affair with a married woman. 5/n
The story ‘Sleepy John’ can be found here: sacred-texts.com/neu/kog/kog08.… 6/6
