New York based Indian Electronica duo Nakul Sharma and Sahil Bhatia, popularly known as Burudu, have unveiled their new single Zehaal-E-Miskeen. Released last week, this modern day qawwali is now available across music streaming platforms like Jio Saavn and Spotify. The song also features Indian classical vocalist Sukanya Chattopadhyay alongside a range of instruments like the traditional tabla and sarangi to less-explored instruments like oud (lute-type, Arabian stringed instrument) and cümbüş (Turkish stringed instrument of relatively modern origin).
The track is a musical interpretation of legendary Indo-Persian Sufi poet Amir Khusro’s ghazal of the same name. The poem is written in the erstwhile court language Persian and Brij Bhasha, which is a dialect of Hindi, Khusro used for songs about seasons and festivals. It has an unusual structure where in the first verse, the first line is in Persian, the second in Brij Bhasha, the third in Persian again, and then the fourth in Brij Bhasha. The weaving together of these two starkly different languages is what had intrigued Burudu. They said, “We were initially drawn in because of the coming together of the two languages in the poem. We didn’t understand half the words but it was phonetically beautiful and assertive, and once we understood its true meaning, to us it became even more powerful.”
One of the most well-known poems of Khusro, Zehaal-E-Miskeen is themed around the separation of a lover from his beloved. And the song by Burudu does a great job in expressing the angst and pain of separation through both the instrumentation and vocals. Along with the lead vocals, Sukanya Chattopadhyay’s powerful background vocals beautifully express the pain of separation.
Fortunately, instrumentation is gaining more and more prominence in contemporary indie music in India. The instrumentation in Zehaal-E-Miskeen gets equal importance as the vocals and draws inspiration from the inherent despondency in the lyrics. Each instrument — like the tabla that begins almost midway through the song — is given the space to present its distinct identity. The resultant sonic texture is diverse, complex, but not complicated — a quality which makes the song contemporary yet fresh. A curious blend of rawness and refinement, this song grows on you — even if you are not a fan of electronica.
Zehaal-E-Miskeen is a popular ghazal, having been sung by legendary singers like Ghulam Ali, in the past. Creating a new interpretation of this well-loved and popular piece was a bold move. This did not escape Burudu, which is why they took more than one year to make the song. “We wanted to make sure we did justice to the words and their meaning, while nestling them in a sound we believe in, so the challenge was the timeless and epic poem itself,” they said adding, “the initial idea leaned heavily on electronic instruments and as we built vocal melodies, we were able to hear the possibility of the more traditional instrumentation of a qawwali finding its place in the song. We recorded the instruments that we felt were needed, like the tabla, sarangi, oud and cümbüş to name a few. And finally, we were conscious of not trying to force the two worlds together, which is why we took our time with this song.”
The track has also been used as the soundtrack of the recently released fashion film named Beyond the Light. The film is by Mumbai-based fashion designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla and features popular actor and choreographer Shantanu Maheshwari.