Kavita and Kanishk Seth from the video track ‘Mere Sanam ke khwab’
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement
The mother’s Sufi vocals and the son’s electronic elements make Kavita and Kanishk Seth’s collaborative music an instant hit. After the indie track ‘Rangi sari gulabi chunariya re’ (2020) took Instagram Reels by storm, the mother-son duo have just released a new single ‘Mere sanam ke khwab’ their first collaboration with T Series. The video featuring dancers Heli Daruwala and Nishant Bhat garnered more than 3m viewers in the first week.
If one heard Kavita’s ‘Yara tere sadke ishq sikha’ (‘Tumhi ho bandhu’) from Cocktail (2009) and ‘Iktara’ from Wake up Sid (2012), one understands her pièce de résistance. Her innumerable ghazal, folk and Sufi renditions at live concerts across the globe have audiences ranging from connoisseurs to lay listeners.
Kavita often collaborates with her composer-singer and producer son Kanishk and takes pride in his professionalism. Joining on a Zoom call, post the release of ‘Mere sanam ke khwab’, the singers say the song’s lyrics are written by poet Syed Zia Alvi. “Mom frequently collaborates with Syed Zia Alvi saab and she’s always looking for good poetry for her compositions. This one was composed two years ago and I happened to hear her singing with harmonium and tabla; then we decided to make it contemporary. We were sure that if we are doing fusion, the soul has to be intact,” says Kanishk.
The duo shares screen space with the dancers in the video directed by Rajit Dev. Heli and Nishant portray artistes who are drawn to each other and bond over their love for dance. Kavita feels the audio and video complement each other well. “I loved the dancers’ movements and never felt something was lacking in the video. it has come out so beautifully, we are watching it every day,” she laughs. “Choreographer Rajit is into music videos and films. He had come up with this story and pitched it to us and T Series. We all liked it. Rajit being a choreographer, made it into a sweet and simple dance-oriented story,” adds Kanishk.
The Rangi… mania
The conversation moves to ‘Rangi sari’, a contemporary spin to Shobha Gurtu’s thumri, blended with electronic beats. The video was made in 2019, recalls Kavita: “Kanishk was planning to have a grand function for the release but then the pandemic struck. Though he wanted to wait, I felt that when people were in the lockdown and going through hardships there must be something to cheer them up, hence decided to go ahead and release.” Kanishk now feels that was the right decision as the song went viral with Instagram launching Reels and people choosing the song to choreograph their own moves and posting.
“From toddlers to 80-year-olds, everyone started posting videos of their dance moves to ‘Rangi sari’, somebody even posted the entire process of applying butter on the bread to ‘Rang sari’,” laughs Kavita and adds, “The credit should go to Shoba Gurtu ji. I like all her thumris but ‘Rangi sari’ is my favourite and the success of this song is because of her blessings.”
The animation video of ‘Rangi sari’ was directed by producer-director and painter Indrajit Nattoji who handpainted the images. Flautist Adwait Kashikar and Kanishk’s electronic rhythms blend seamlessly with the traditional thumri. The song was also used in Dharma Productions’ 2022 film Jug jug jeeyo and picturised on Varun Dhawan and Kiara Advani.
“Sache man se we did our work and rest of it is the love of the people,” says Kavita about the success of their music.