Aabha Hanjura releases a festive song centered on Kashmiri traditions

Kashmiri folk-fusion artiste Aabha Hanjura has unveiled "Nundbane", which is a festive song revolving around Kashmiri traditions and history.

The folk-pop number has borrowed lyrics from the works of poet Mahmud Gami.

"'Nundbane' is very special to me because it has taken time to shape as a song in the way I want it to. Its music video will always remain very special to me because I shot this in Jaipur, one day after we headlined the Jaipur Literature Festival," she told IANS.

Jaipur has always been the city that has been very close to her heart.

"I think culturally it is the most vibrant city in India and I always wanted to showcase the rustic Indian folk elements in my music, so I felt like it provided the best background to a Kashmiri song. The perspective we took in the video was very authentic, of a travelling musician singing her native song in a new city. So it makes 'Nundbane' the most special music video for me," she said.

The song is from her upcoming album, "Sound Of Kashmir".

"I have always made sure that my music doesn't get monotonous in my albums, and every song is drastically different. 'Hukus Bukus' was in a very different zone as a song, versus 'Khanmoej Khoor', which was a ballad in which we used pianos and backing choirs and all of that, versus 'Roshewalla', which was a proper folk rock song. 'Nundbane' brings vibrant Indian folk elements married with a Kashmiri sound, set amidst a very modern arrangement. The idea is always to do justice to the song and see what the song really demands," she said.

"The main thing for me that differentiates my song from what you would hear rather otherwise is the signature valley sound of mine, which includes instruments that are absolutely authentic and rustic like rubab, tumbaknari. These are all Kashmiri instruments, these are the sounds of the mountains, where I am from and I always try to include them in my music," she added.

One of her tracks tells the story of lakhs of Kashmiris who are away from their land.

"One of my tracks in the album ‘Sound Of Kashmir', which is ‘Chalo chinaro ke gharon' from the 'Roshewalla' series is bilingual music where we did one song in Kashmiri and one in Hindi. For the same song, we also made a two-part series in which the story starts in the Kashmiri song and ends in the Hindi song," she said.

Explaining further, she shared: "The Hindi song talks about ‘Chalo chinaro ke gharon', which is a very personal story. It is my story as well. It is the story of lakhs of Kashmiris who are away from their land and have been living as refugees in their own country. They have the longing to go back to their own land, which is something even I feel, but if you see whoever is living outside Kashmir, especially in our community -- the Kashmiri Pundit community -- have not only prospered, but they have also added prosperity to wherever we are. So there is a line in the song ‘Jad ke bina jeena, shajar ne sikh to liya, baantey thandi chao banjara, chalo chinaro ke gharon', which is basically the story of most of us. So it does touch upon an issue that we face in Kashmir in today's time for sure, and that would be the song which would be relevant. 'Hukus Bukus' on the other hand presents the age-old Kashmiri spiritual philosophy dressed in a fun avatar."

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