The seemingly irrelevant matchboxes, featured in a Mumbai-based musician's recent release, play a key role in spreading rather important social messages
It seems like a regular peppy song, till we hear the lyrics. "I've been told about temples and bridge at sea/but not about demolitions and the bigotry" are the lines that make us switch the tab back to where the music video of Mumbai musician Raghav Meattle's recent release, One-sided Stories, is playing. We're in for a pleasant surprise to see a vibrant matchbox with streams of text like "MRP is trust + GST" and logos from different political parties turning into a rangoli - subtle social statements put across in a tasteful manner which you can spot only if you look closer.
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The matchbox art in Meattle's video frame subtle social messages
"The song talks about how we live in an echo chamber; how you surround yourself with people who think in a particular way, and if somebody disagrees, you don't really have space for them in your life. Which is why it gets even more dangerous when it comes to elections, because you don't know what's happening outside of the bubble you live in. Everything gets polarised. You're either a bhakt or a hater, there's no middle ground. Hence the title of the song, because you only hear one side of the story," says Meattle.
The matchbox art in Meattle's video done by Ayushi Rastogi, frame subtle social messages
So, it was only fitting that he collaborated with another Mumbai resident, 23-year-old Mehek Malhotra who is also highlighting similar issues with her artworks, for the music video. The NIFT graduate and founder of Giggling Monkey design studio, has been captivated by matchboxes since she was 11, as she lived across the country due to her father's job in the Army. Today, she has 300, and runs a matchbox project. "I love local Indian graphics, and they inspire my work. They maintain the realness of what you would see in life. I also realised that a matchbox is so ignored that if you put the world's best kept secret on it, people won't even notice. My artworks are a catalyst to get people thinking about the bigger things that are happening around us," she says.
Mehek Malhotra's artworks
Malhotra designed one which said "Woke and horny", as a reference to the #MeToo-AIB debacle, and one about the power and privilege the blue tick gives to verified celebrities on social media with a huge following. Speaking of her designs in Meattle's videos, she says, "We've used 25 frames of matchboxes throughout the song. It had to be subtle so that no one could send us to jail."
The title for Meattle's album, Songs from a Matchbox, too, stems from a fascination for this crucial fire tool, but it also points in the direction of another big problem in Mumbai, the lack of space. "People would call my house a matchbox because it was that small, and so when I put my album together, it was literally that, songs from a matchbox," Meattle laughs.
Mehek Malhotra
His next song, City Life, which releases in March, continues the conversation about life in Mumbai. "It is about how big cities turn you into a soulless person, and questions why we live in a city.
Raghav Meattle
It has a line, 'in these packed trains', because I travel with my guitar in trains all the time, and no one cares about how expensive the instrument is," he says. Can we expect a music video shot in the Mumbai local next?
Rohit Mirdoddi
Matchbox collector
At 29, Rohit Mirdoddi, is is the proud owner of 100 matchboxes. It all started in 2016, when he was out for a smoke. He had already been collecting stamps (he has 500), coins (300), and small alcohol bottles (50). "My friend and I saw observed how different the matchboxes were," says the landscape architect, who was then travelling through villages for work. "There were wax ones and wooden ones. We started collecting them and soon, had enough to cover an entire wall in my 1BHK with them," Mirdoddi informs.
He can now look at a matchbox and tell which region it is from. "Some have words written in local languages. But images like coconut, sunflower or oranges mean it's from South India. If it has Char Minar, it's from Hyderabad." says Mirdoddi, who plans to make an installation with matchboxes.
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