‘WAQT’ - A Review

By – Julius Macwan

Indian pop today is becoming more intelligent, complex and expressive of a whole generation’s life and angst.

            When you first hear the songs of Suneeta Rao’s fifth album, “WAQT”, you realize what puts Suneeta where she is. The hits that she has had have become songs known by people of all ages, popular in the true sense of the word. It’s very difficult to think of a pop song as widely known as ‘Paree Hoo Main’. She commands a respect not known by her contemporaries, along with all the adulation.

            More than anything, there’s something that puts her at a different level. Trying to put my finger on it, I found it in her presence in Indian pop music. As soon as Suneeta voices those first notes in a song, you experience what makes her special. Her voice transforms those notes into that unique phenomenon which you feel you have known all your life. It is the same quality that those very few voices have, like they’ve always been there. This raises her song to that unique level. And is the core of the ‘Suneeta Rao’ part of Indian pop.

 

The new songs are deeper, and are the coming together of a lot of patterns. The earlier subtle Indian classical nuances have now become full-fledged references to the classical. Bold, unabashed and uninhibited. Connected with the western in the most unconditioned and refreshingly oh so refreshingly unselfconscious ways. Mature in their rendering, yet young in their effect – a magical ideal that every singer strives for, one is always at the cost of the other.

            A reference to one genre of classical is followed by the most unlikely other reference to a completely unrelated genre. This comes from a combination of things. Freedom. A deep need to communicate. The use of musical forms for what they were intended – expression. Not being blindly self-negating and servile towards everything classical. And most importantly, the ability for technical accuracy.

 

And then there is the TWIST. Suneeta Rao! A smile in pain?! Flirting in sadness?! A searing line of exquisite angst in the middle of a mellow mood?!! How much more lifelike can one get? To watch a hurricane-like soul demonstrate its unpredictability is to witness life.

To get hit by the next completely unexpected most beautiful DEVELOPMENT.

            This takes musical form in the way Suneeta changes, in a beat, from a tender, caressing rhythm to a hard, taunting groove. Or from one biting line of lyric to a plaintive desperate call.

            Musically this makes for very arresting listening – even a passerby would notice and be jolted, because one stops listening because of predictability, and precisely at that moment the twist throws it out of gear. It is a paradoxical combination that throws up the least expected, almost unfitting, development – which actually perfectly fits.

The form is tight – not giving in to the temptation of milking an idea dry. Just touching it – giving it the most economical, and at the same time, most stunning touch, and stopping there.

            And the innocence is intact and precious.