In tune with love and hope
Poet-songwriter Navaldeep Singh collaborated with a group of artistes to come up with the song Raat Kaari — a tender composition on love in lockdown. While the current situation might make love seem only about longing, Singh inspires many to think that it is not totally hopeless. Lines from the song — “Toot kar jo na jurey/ Woh dil bhi kya dil hua”, roughly translate to “A broken heart isn’t quite a heart if it doesn’t heal”. Simultaneously, on screen, an egg is cracked, leaving the shell in two halves.
Singh says once the peripheral idea of the song was conceived, the first draft took him only 15 minutes. “It was that unprompted,” he adds. Love during a lockdown is difficult as it isn’t anything young adults have fought previously. It, however, takes them back to times when courtship in letters made lovers feel buoyant. The song is a summary of how technology doesn’t always aid communication.
About the title, the writer says, “It is a metaphor for the curfew. Since morning marks the beginning of a usual day, Raat Kaari means one long limitless night, quite like the lockdown.”
He shares that shooting a music video from home is challenging. “The singer AB Madhav had to record after draping a blanket over his head and shoulders to cut out background noise. It got frustrating at times to coordinate over calls and re-doing parts to achieve that exact emotion,” he says. On the upside, Singh says, there was no hurry of wrapping up the shoot in six hours. The actors or singer could take a day’s break and approach the project with a fresh mind later. According to the songwriter, actors Guneet Wahan (who plays Keya) and Aaryan Deshpande (who plays Zayn), this initiative of finding a telling digital escape brought artistes closer to their families. Singh explains, “You have to request someone to hold the camera at a certain angle, give them the brief and repeat the process until done to satisfaction. The process of learning to translate sentiments on visual media helps you bond as a family.”