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Only those who are fuelled by passion can truly break the mould. Combined with the perfect amount of dedication and hard work, a passionate spirit can move mountains and break boundaries. But it’s definitely not for everyone. It takes someone truly special.
India’s premium fusion band Maati Baani are back with their song ‘Manmohiya’ which chronicles the brave tale of love and passion. Inspired by the life of 17-year-old Tanika Shanbhag, this love ballad talks of the love story between a young girl and her bike.
Tanika is a motorcross rider from the town of Satara who dreams of representing India globally. Directed by Disha Rindani, the music video features Tanika and chronicles her story of discovering the sport and falling in love with it. Tanika was also the sole female participant in the high voltage race at the National Supercross Championship in 2018.
Maati Baani’s distinct musical aesthetics shine bright with the perfect combination of Kartik Shah’s moody instrumentals and Nirali Kartik’s soothing vocals. We had the chance to speak to the duo about the creative process behind the track. Check it out!
Q) What was the creative process behind the song and the music video?
Nirali: In a span of a couple of months, we had composed a bunch of songs. One of those songs was Manmohiya. It’s composed by Kartik, and when I heard it for the first time - I knew that this was a very special song. And when you know something beautiful has been created, you want to make sure its handled well. I loved singing this song - it felt like an emotional release of sorts!
Kartik: It’s a ballad which has traces of Rajasthani vocals and beautiful singing by Nirali. I had heard this beautiful voice on a CD almost 5 years ago and I wanted to have the same folk voice to sing in this song. We traced her and got her to sing the lyrics which are traditionally sung by “Bhopa-Bhopis” in Rajasthan. Its a unique and rare community of musicians. For recording other instruments, I resorted to what I do
best - crowd source musicians from across the world to play on the track. About the video, I had this idea running in my head of a girl falling in love, not with a boy, but with her bike! Generally, you see a girl-boy kinda romance in ballads, which didn’t excite us for the video. So we clearly wanted to make a video which was a unique and an unconventional love story. We discovered our lead protagonist, Tanika Shanbhag, a young Motocross racer from Satara and we could finally see the video shaping up. Some time later, we met Disha Noyonika Rindani - an award winning filmmaker (Bombay 70) to direct this video and she weaved a beautiful story of a girl who loves her bike and dreams of becoming a champion. It was a lot of hard work as the entire team had to travel to Satara where this video was shot over 3 days. Honestly, we had our goosebumps moment when we saw the final video!
Q) How did you come across Tanika Shanbhag. What was it about her story that appealed to you?
Kartik: Luckily a friend of ours, Vishal Sanghra, was a Motocross racer and I remember going to see his race a long time ago. He suggested Tanika Shanbhag, a young 17-year-old Motocross racer based in Satara as the lead protagonist of the song. She is the only girl in the sport of Motocross in India and drives like fire! She ventured into Motocross on the insistence of her father, who himself was a National Rally Four wheeler champion. The story was just inspiring, as she chose an unconventional and a unique sport for her career. There have been Motocross races in India for more than 20 years now, but it’s still relatively unknown, and Tanika’s dream of winning an International championship for India is truly inspiring.
Q) What advice would you give to someone who is planning to pursue passion/alternative careers (like music, sports etc.)?
Nirali: These are no alternate careers, I believe. Music or sports or cooking or storytelling; people consider these as their hobbies, in general. But when someone clearly knows that this is one’s calling and they are here to fulfill that calling, there remains no doubt about one’s career choice. However before taking any decisions, its imperative to objectively consider various aspects of that area.
The single most important factor is to closely observe or be a part of that milieu, to get a first hand experience of what the life as a musician, sportsman, poet or an artiste could be like. This can give a lot of clarity to decide what one wants to do!
Q) In today’s age of hip-hop, where do genres like fusion and classical music stand in popular culture?
Nirali: Its great how hip-hop has come out in the recent times - it speaks the language of Urban India. Whereas folk and classical genres have been around since many centuries - its the language of the land. There must be something very special about classical and folk music that they are still here. In a globalized world, it’s our music and the rootedness in our culture that will help us stand out in a homogenous
crowd.
Kartik: As musicians, we enjoy listening to every single genre on the planet and we try to incorporate various elements of these genres in our music. However, as musicians we also want to create something that is rooted in Indian music - for the audience to know how vast and beautiful our traditional music is - how rich
and poetic our colloquial dialects are. We want to be the best representatives of the form so that more and more people get to hear the beautiful music of our country.
Q) What’s next for Maati Baani?
Nirali : We will be releasing our new songs which we have been working on for a year now. We are also working on a new live act which will feature lots of diverse musicians from India.
Kartik : We are always on the look out for the next batch of misfits, innovators, adventurers in music having unconventional ideas. And then we turn them into songs! What drives us is music as a visual language and how we can make the most of the enormity of sounds around us. You can expect nothing lesser than that!
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