describe accurately the most talked, sung, written and
painted about emotion in existence.
Bablu Ki Shaadi takes a scalpel to the absurdity of the
social quicksand that is arranged marriage. Satire
abounds in the entire album, but Osho and his lot have
been excessively generous with it while chucking at the
hollow kernel of marriages made in relatives’ minds
rather than in a couple’s hearts. Once against, lyrical
dexterity does not match the first two tracks, but a simple
enumeration of how arranged marriages come about (
Bola rishteydaro ne/ Fasaya parivar ne) and how they
tend to work out is enough to generate comedy that doles
out despair by the balti.
Ghoome Re intercepts another common and depressing
phenomenon : losing selves and souls in the pursuit of
worldly aspiration. The questions posed are frequently
repeated, most often by those smack in the middle of the
struggle - Why lose sanity for shohrat?
The band, based out of Mumbai, chances upon the most
fitting metaphor for the city’s unceasing traffic of human
ambition and survival.
“Hain Railgari sa jivan tera (Your life resembles the train)
Moh main kuch lipta aisa (Slathered and mired in
delusion)
Uljha hain tu khud mein aisa (Enmeshed in yourself you
are)
Bacha hain na tu khud ke jaisa (No longer are you like
yourself)
The words gain momentum, rocked by rhythm resembling
Mumbai’s endless trains which ferry travelers to and from
their fortunes and desires.
Aao Khele is an admirable debut. Aankh Micholi sings
about important things, and does it well. They garnish
their thoughts with skillful, unpredictable riffs and
melodies, preventing any possibility of boredom. It
expertly reproduces zeitgeist, and while doing so, proves
that not much has changed for the human condition.
They’re asking questions we have become used to, and yet
we have little to no answers to offer.
Science City (Parekh & Singh):
Underneath stolid red suits and uncompromising
deadpan stares is brewing a set of songs obsessed with
every atom of everyday life. This duo, often seen in
crunchy colours have made a habit out of manifesting
apparently unthreatening songs with flecks of exact truth
cocooned in. They stay true to this artistic tendency in
their sophomore album, but come armed with a whole
new repertoire of metaphors and puzzles.
“Time’s a waste of life”,croons Parekh while Singh
peppers this roster of curious cynicism with minimal but
essential punctuation. The album reveals their obsession
with nuance - the how’s of everything they can lay their
hands on. They pose questions and use their expressive
instinct to breakdown the strangeness of the universe
with it's own language. Forward Slash and Surgeon are
especially conversant in this, and you can taste the band’s
consistent pursuit of how everything works.
Simultaneously, Down at the Sky, Be Something and
Monkey take divergent journeys into the commonalities
of human nature. Love, loss, self-doubt, resignation,
optimism and quiet numbness all come through, riding on
the backs of eccentric, playful musings.
There is so much in the album that is impossible to get
over. They stick to their characteristic juxtaposition
of quirk-dabbled, wonder-inspiring composition with
straight-laced but colourful wordplay depicting things
gone askew. Parekh & Singh have never peddled despair,
but they have always been champion sculptors of life’s
loose ends. Their music never causes outright exhaustion,
but it's beauty belies a certain unease.
Science City is named after a museum and science center
in Kolkata. As one of the city’s foremost attractions, it
does not simply denote a wellspring of knowledge, but has
immense emotive resonance for inhabitants of the city. If
you have lived in Kolkata, you have probably felt love and
giggles (it's a popular date joint) as well as comfort and
security (it is also every family’s go-to picnic spot). You
feel all of that leaking out of the album, and it wouldn’t be
untoward to reminisce about your adolescent Christmas
Day at Science City.
If you have not lived in Kolkata, simply reminisce about
everything else, and you will find that the songs fit into
every memory.