Premiere: Karshni Reclaims Power in Unsettling ‘Malapropism’ Video

Pune-based singer-songwriter Karshni’s latest song “Malapropism” sees the artist offer a visual pathway into physical and emotional contortion, employing the Japanese rope bondage artform Shibari.

The unsettling singer-songwriter-meets-chaotic-electronic track—produced by Karshni as well as Bengaluru-based artist Disco Puppet—is part of her upcoming album Buck Wild, slated to release in January 2026. Karshni explains in a press release that the unsettling but unfettered song gets its title from an unreleased essay she’s written called Take You To The Candy Shop.

It reads: “Spanning the expanse that is the English language are words and phrases that can be prioritised within morality. Somehow, when the meaning of one word was forgotten, and another was remembered, the malapropism appeared to be the speaker himself. The malapropism thrust itself in places where it was unwelcome, making every other sentence that surrounded it, uncomfortable. It was a glaring error, a phallic oddity. It was incorrect.”

Karshni teamed up with filmmaker Armaan Mishra in Bengaluru as well as Shibari artist Amiya Bhanushali for the black and white music video that sees her in physical contortion, suspended mid-air in ropework as she sings, “I’m actually 25/But you don’t deserve the grace of age/You don’t deserve any grace/And you’re too damn old to change/So stay the way you’ll stay/And go about your f***ing day.” The video is directed and edited by Karshni.

She says in a statement about Shibari, “The movements experienced by the body of a woman for the first time reflect a tension and apprehension but also the certainty of reclaiming power […] The visual approach creates an uneasy but intentional contrast to the song’s exploration of consent violations and linguistic minimisation, using voluntary restraint to reclaim bodily agency in a narrative otherwise shaped by its erosion.”

“Malapropism” follows Karshni’s single “Gaping Hole” from November, the first single off Buck Wild. In the former video directed by filmmaker Priya Panchwadkar, there are some visual cues to “Malapropism,” even if subtle. She says about the album, “Buck Wild has been a conviction of softness, but it’s also just ravenous in its expression. Songwriting can travel way beyond just mellow, soft fluff. It can be malleable to translate in different sounds and forms and I’ve tried to experiment and work with that in this album.”

Ahead of the album release, the artist will also perform in New Delhi on Dec. 20, 2025, as part of music company Boxout.fm’s year-end special at Method, alongside producer Goya aka Abhishek Sekhri and DJ Ser Coc aka Eshaan George.