Sona Mohapatra's new single Ghane Badra from Lal Pari Mastani is a nostalgic ode to Indian monsoon

It would not be a stretch if one said that Sona Mohapatra and Ram Sampath have together altered the fabric of fusion music in India. While the duo has previously delivered soulful numbers for Bollywood films like Fukrey’s ‘Ambarsariya’ together, it is the web where they have truly explored different genres of music.

Sona Mohapatra on 3 August released ‘Ghane Badra’, a song belonging to the chillwave genre. The slow tempo and  the soft, mellow vocals render to the track almost a dreamlike, psychedelic aura. The lyrics of ‘Ghane Badra’ appears to be a an ode to lazy, rainy, nostalgic afternoons.

This is the fourth song in the Lal Pari Mastani project that Mohapatra and Sampath launched with its first song ‘Shaam Piya’. Shot entirely as a VR 360-degree-panorama_, ‘Shaam Piya’_ is fusion-rock rendition of a popular Meera bhajan. The music features the virtuoso Talvin Singh on the tabla & Sanjoy Das on the guitars.

Mohapatra terms Lal Pari Mastani as her alter ego and believes the undertaking would be for her a way to explore different facets of her own personality, she said in an interview with Indian Express. The concept germinated from the story of a rebellious woman who, donned in scarlet garb, would sing in a dargah somewhere in Afghanistan despite a Taliban diktat banning music and ordering women to not step out the inner courtyard.

Two other songs have released under Lal Pari Mastani, ‘Tori Surat’ and ‘Anhad Naad’. While the former is based on a poem by Amir Khusro, the latter is a revamped version of Ram Sampath’s Coke Studio number.

Watch ‘Ghane Badra’ here :