पिकले पोम

Pikley Pom (पिकले पोम) is the father-daughter song from Baby John (2024), composer Thaman S's high-profile Hindi-cinema outing, sung by Vishal Mishra alongside young co-singer Riya Seepana and written by Irshad Kamil. Released as a single by Zee Music Company on 6 December 2024, nineteen days ahead of the film's Christmas theatrical release, the track is picturized on Varun Dhawan and child actor Zara Zyanna in a bright, Kerala-shot sequence — a bouncy, deliberately childlike novelty number whose coined 'Pikley Pom' refrain is engineered as a sing-along chant. Baby John, directed by Kalees and produced by Atlee's Cine1 Studios with Jio Studios and A for Apple Productions, is the Hindi remake of the 2016 Tamil blockbuster Theri, and Pikley Pom occupies the same warm father-daughter slot that anchored the original's emotional core.

Composed by Thaman S — one of South Indian cinema's most prolific and commercially dominant film composers, best known for his Telugu blockbusters — Pikley Pom is built on a synth-driven, beat-forward pop chassis with a deliberately childlike bounce. The 'Pikley Pom pom yeah' hook works as a call-and-response chant rather than a melodic verse, alternating Vishal Mishra's warm lead against the bright, unpolished charm of young co-singer Riya Seepana's vocals. It is a novelty-forward arrangement — programmed percussion, playful synths, and a tempo pitched for a child's on-screen dance — designed less as a chart ballad than as an irresistibly hummable family singalong.

Irshad Kamil — one of Hindi cinema's most decorated contemporary lyricists — writes here in a register far removed from his signature romantic poetry: simple, repetitive, almost baby-talk phrasing built for a child to sing back. The coined 'Pikley Pom' refrain carries no literal meaning; it is pure playful sound, a nonsense hook whose job is catchiness. The one line of real sentiment — 'tere hone se hai meri jaan' ('you are the reason my life exists') — grounds the froth in genuine parental tenderness, a father telling his daughter she is his very life. It is deliberately un-literary writing, and that plainness is the craft: a lyric a five-year-old can memorize on first listen.

Baby John (2024) is an action drama directed by Kalees, produced by Atlee's Cine1 Studios along with Jio Studios and A for Apple Productions, and is the official Hindi remake of the 2016 Tamil hit Theri. It stars Varun Dhawan as Satya Verma, a police officer living in hiding as a doting single father, with Keerthy Suresh (in her Hindi-film debut), Wamiqa Gabbi, Jackie Shroff as the antagonist, and child actor Zara Zyanna as Varun's on-screen daughter. Pikley Pom scores the film's father-daughter thread — the tender counterweight to its action spine — with Varun Dhawan and Zara Zyanna dancing through a bright, Kerala-shot sequence. Released as a single on 6 December 2024, it was one of the tracks Zee Music Company rolled out ahead of the film's 25 December 2024 Christmas release, positioning the warm, family-friendly number as part of the pre-release marketing.

Pikley Pom found its audience fast: its Zee Music Company video crossed tens of millions of YouTube views within its first year, powered by the sheer earworm-quality of its nonsense hook and the wave of kids' dance-cover reels it inspired. While Baby John itself met a mixed critical and commercial reception at the box office, the film's soundtrack — anchored by tracks like Nain Matakka and Hazaar Baar — travelled well, and Pikley Pom became its most reels-friendly, family-oriented cut. For composer Thaman S, the film marked one of his most visible Bollywood projects to date, and for Irshad Kamil it was a rare turn into deliberately childlike, sing-along territory — a reminder that the year's Hindi-film soundscape had room for a bouncy father-daughter novelty alongside its dance-floor anthems.