Watch Pune Singer-Songwriter Flying Shoe’s Bittersweet Reminiscence in ‘Paperboats’ Video

Letters form an important part of the visual language in Pune singer-songwriter Flying Shoe aka Omkar Potdar’s new music video “Paperboats,” directed by filmmaker Niteesh Jangid. While several pages of handwritten letters are part of Potdar’s gaze throughout the video, the singer-songwriter doesn’t necessarily feel that it’s a quaint habit.

The artist explains that when he’s in a close relationship with someone, he’s the kind to leave notes on the fridge, inside books and even letters by the bedside. “More often than not, I’ve found old letters and notes given to me while rummaging through my stuff. So, it didn’t seem like an old concept to me. I find it to be a thoughtful gesture actually.” Jangid — whose home in Pune was the location of Flying Shoe’s previous video “Tonight” — adds that letters will always have a sense of personal value. “[Author] Franz Kafka’s love letters to [Czech writer] Milena and [Japanese author] Murakami’s stories (some of which also uses letters as tools) are one of my favorite writings and they both are there in the video… well, in some form at least,” the filmmaker says.

In the video for “Paperboats” — the title track off Flying Shoe’s debut EP released in March — Potdar and his cat friend Kitanu are seen at home. After going through several old letters, the artist turns them into paperboats and heads out to a nearby stream to send them away, in a bid for closure on a relationship. Jangid says they took all necessary precautions and kept filming crew to a minimum to shoot the music video, which was ideated during the lockdown and initiated once the director returned to Pune and completed home quarantine.

The video follows Flying Shoe’s crowdsourced, quarantine homemade clip for “Rollercoaster,” which was out in April. Potdar says he’s keen to work with different musicians just like he did with Paperboats and there’s more material on the way. “This year has given me a lot of time to think and that has found its way into a lot of new material that I’ve written,” he adds.

Watch the video for “Paperboats” below. Get ‘Paperboats’ EP here.