Exclusive Premiere: Scottish-Indian Rocker Kapil Seshasayee Takes Aim at Bollywood and Identity Politics on Second Album ‘Laal’

Since the release of his 2018 album A Sacred Bore, Scotland-based Indian artist Kapil Seshasayee has gone on to release a handful of songs, perform at U.K. festivals like Latitude, hit the U.S. for South By Southwest (SXSW) and collaborated with American rapper Lil B.

Now, he’s finally out with his second album Laal, which he describes as the second installment of his “Desifuturist trilogy” of music which critiques the caste system in all its present-day manifestations. Starting with the release of electronic-rock song “The Item Girl” in 2019 and “The Gharial” in 2020, Seshasayee began plotting out Laal as a project that takes aim at all the identity politics propagated within and through Bollywood and Indian cinema.

The artist says in a statement about the 10-track Laal, “Every song from the album is going to tell a story about Bollywood [and] what’s not immediately visible. I want those stories to illuminate things that people aren’t thinking about and empower those who live these stories. Bollywood informs so much of South Asian cultural identity but some of this influence requires greater scrutiny.”

Referencing an Indian queer film by director Sridhar Rangayan which was banned in India, “The Pink Mirror” takes a deeper look at “dehumanizing depictions of queer and trans Indians in cinema.” For the most part, Seshasayee is among those voices calling for more inclusion and authenticity in Indian cinema. The grandiose, mystique-built song “Funny Boy” references the title of filmmaker Deepa Mehta’s 2020 film, which is based on a Sri Lankan Tamils but courted criticism as it failed to include any Tamil natives.

Seshasayee takes matters into his own hands in a sense with Laal, whose album cover art  – shot by Sean Patrick Campbell – depicts two South Asian persons in a shot inspired by filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai’s 1997 movie Happy Together. The artist runs through buzzing, shiny synth lines and guitar riffs on occasion on the album, blending Indian classical influences as well as subtle Nineties Bollywood soundtrack flourishes.

The Lil B collaboration “Hill Station Reprise” is adapted as a Seshasayee solo track on Laal, now called “Hill Station Epithet.” Released as a single in October, it’s described by the artist as “a celebration of the repurposing of hill stations as frequent venues for Bollywood song and dance numbers despite their exclusive origins within colonialism.”

Elsewhere on Laal, Auto-Tune vocals transform the carnivalesque “You Have The Makings Of A Clown” and Pakistani rapper Daranti Group busts in for the rousing takedown that’s “Rupture Of The Wheel.” There are serpentine guitar melodies on “I Whitewash The Old West,” one of Seshasayee’s most upbeat rock songs. Although synth-pop abounds on “370,” it draws to a close in a noisy manner that’s reminiscent of A Sacred Bore. Laal closes with “Lewd Cabal,” which takes listeners on one last spotlight-blinding ride through Indian cinema.

Featuring drummer and producers Edwin McLachlan and Paul McArthur along with flutist Diljeet Kaur Bhachu, Seshasayee will mark the release of Laal with two launch shows in Edinburgh on November 19th and in Glasgow on November 23rd.

Listen to ‘Laal’ below. The album releases on digital platforms on November 18th.