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Amarjot Kaur

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In 2002, Neha Bhasin, along with Anushka Manchanda, Pratichee Mohapatra, Mahua Kamat and Seema Ramchandani, made a legendary debut on Indian television, giving the country its first all-girl music band called Viva. Though the band split up after a two-year fling with fame, they deserve a worthy mention in defining the creative, original, and non-filmy independent music scene.

At a swish hotel in Chandigarh, Neha rewinds her memory back to 16 years ago when she landed a stint with Channel V Popstars. Then a student at LSR, Delhi, Neha, like every other 20-year-old of the 90s was inspired by the world music scene, especially pop music that came from the likes of Michael Jackson, Salt n’ Pepper, Madonna, and many others. 

“We wanted to make original, non-filmy music. Blame it on poor management or inexperience of the ‘too young’ kids, the band didn’t work out,” she says. Viva still exists, but only in a WhatsApp group. Today, Neha is singing for Bollywood and reviving some of Punjab’s lost folk songs.

Inspiration: What not to do

Cut to 10 years when Neha got back to singing only to mount her music videos on YouTube some four years ago, she neither had any inkling to sing Punjabi alternate folk music, nor was she very savvy with the language. She was, however, inspired to reckon that while most independent music was put on ventilator in the absence of cassette, CD, and album culture, Punjab was still slaying with all that music brought to them by their cool cousins abroad. “They were emulating the hip-hop music that comes from the blacks, borrowing only the misogynistic content, and not their tales of oppression. Nevertheless, in this part of the country, independent music was still making waves. However, the more I listened to Punjabi music, I thought, is this all? Is there nothing more to it than auto-tune, same content, same haircuts, same objectification of women. That’s what inspired me to make the kind of music we make,” shares Neha.

Neha compliments Punjabi music production, but suggests that the quality of writing needs to improve. “Hum me Swag zyada aa gaya hai; the more people are getting swaggier, the more cultured I want to be. It’s Punjab’s culture that needs to be tapped, just like the folks back in Pakistan are doing.”

No labels, please 

Having started her career with signing a 50-page contract, Neha had her set of apprehensions when she got back to music. “Sameer, my producer and now my husband, was the one who asked me to sing Punjabi folk; and the first song that came to my mind was, Latthe di Chaadar. Since it turned out well, we thought of taking it to the net. Our channel is called 5 AM and we do everything, right from recording to producing to marketing, ourselves. I had the voice, Sameer had the vision and I found my expression in folk music,” Neha shares. Having made a series of songs on YouTube and even Bollywood, with Dhunki, Jag Ghoomeya, and Dil Diyan Gallan, Neha feels that it is more liberating to produce her own music. 

Talk sexy to me...

In her song, Akh Kaashni, Neha faced a bit of a backlash from the ‘moral police’ for stripping down her bridal wear and wearing a pair of shorts and snickers. “In every bridal video, we show women getting dressed. In the video, we wanted to show otherwise. The aim of the video was to show that marriage can be liberating; it’s not just slavery,” Neha clarifies. On sexuality, she shares, “In Punjab men sing women’s lyrics too. One-sided sexuality is not called sexuality. If I talk about my body, it has to mean something to me. When the woman talks about herself, then that’s sexuality. To an artiste, sexuality is the innate power with which s/he creates.”

amarjot@tribuneamil.com