A Hindi rock band's new track brings together three Mumbaikars who are making a difference.
Hrishi Giridhar, Anand Bhaskar, Shishir Thakur and Neelkanth Patel
Reshma Shelatkar is a godmother to 200 strays in the city; environmentalist George Remedios dreams of creating food forests in India; and Ramesh Raut, who runs Prayas Foundation, spends his days tutoring over 450 underprivileged kids in Andheri and Goregaon. Despite being from different walks of life, they have one thing in common: they've carved out their paths doing things they believe will make a difference, without waiting for societal approval. And this idea forms the core of Anand Bhaskar Collective's first new track in three years, Main hoon zameen, the video of which features the three Mumbaikars.
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Speaking about the pop rock-esque number, a deviation from their usual heavy sound, vocalist Bhaskar says, "The melody came to me three years ago with the three words [the title]. Ad filmmaker Anand Karir, my mentor, wrote the lyrics on the lines of my thought that you can be the zameen or the asmaan; the choice is yours. It led us to think about people who change the world without waiting for anything." After some research, they zeroed in on Remedios, Shelatkar and Raut. "The crew shadowed and captured them going about their day," adds Bhaskar. This footage was combined with shots of the band performing in three cities last October to produce the final video, which garnered over 3.5 lakh views.
The uplifting lyrics, backed by Bhaskar's chunky vocals, a killer guitar solo by Hrishi Giridhar, steady beats rolled out by Shishir Thakur and surprisingly, a choir at the end, make Main hoon zameen — a part of their new EP Ufaq — an instant pick-me-up. "Ufaq means horizon; it's a play on how we're trying to achieve something new with a more mature sound," Bhaskar signs off.
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