Exclusive Premiere: Ahmedabad Rock Project Alhaan’s Slick New Song ‘Ishq Bemisaal’

Interested in music and filmmaking since his teens, Ahmedabad-based Rohit Srivastava joined the National Institute of Design to study filmmaking in 2014 but also began writing songs for his project Alhaan.

While the first two releases came via erstwhile music channel Pepsi MTV Indies in 2016, “Aeri Sakhi” and “Kaale Sawan” were prominently about telling a story through the music video, set to fusion rock. In 2017, he amped up production values for film and music, releasing “Baat Baaki,” which currently stands at over 109,000 views on YouTube. The high production value is something that the filmmaker-composer says he can afford after working on commercial shoots. “Since this has been my dream project since day one of creating music, I don’t compromise on the production due to any limitations.”

Srivastava and his team are outdoing themselves yet again on the fourth Alhaan release, the chaotic alt rock song “Ishq Bemisaal.” The music and lyrics by the artist is brought to life by vocalist Protyay Chakraborty (from jazz band Heat Sink), guitarist Dwit Hathi, drummer Dhaivat Jani and bassist Marc Damania, detailing a murky and apocalyptic story about a character named Ishq. Srivastava says, “It’s a lot more metaphorical and I’d like to keep the poetry open to interpretation for the listeners.”

Unlike the story-led releases put out previously, Srivastava stated that dealing with these themes led to the video not having a direct storyline. Featuring glitched out motion capture, kaleidoscopic and swiveling camera movements, Srivastava says, “It’s more of a visual treat supporting the mood of the song.”

With four songs out now, Alhaan’s next iteration is a four-track EP. Srivastava says it will “revolve around the political scene framed as stanzas of poetry.” He adds, “For these, I am hoping to collaborate with some popular independent artists.”

Watch the video for “Ishq Bemisaal” below.