Watch: Singer Neha Bhasin’s Latest Punjabi Folk Song, ‘Akh Kashni’

Most people would remember Neha Bhasin from her time with the popular all-girl band Viva. After Viva split around ten years ago, the singer embarked on her solo career and launched her debut album Tabaah in 2010, featuring nine pop-rock songs.

Neha Bhasin in the “Akh Kashni” song video.

Although Bhasin has always embraced her feisty pop singer status with pride, of late, she has been whipping up tracks that display her versatility as a vocalist. Bhasin has been digging deep into her cultural roots, pulling out Punjabi folk songs and reinterpreting them with the help of her music partner Sameer Uddin. The first two such experiments created “Lathe Di Chaddar” and “Bajre Da Sita”, both which are acoustic arrangements with minimal instrumentation. Her latest track is a wedding song called “Akh Kashni”, which, like most mischievous Punjabi wedding songs, “takes pot shots at one’s in-laws”. Says Bhasin about the song, “I am focusing on reviving Punjabi folk music by adding a modern twist to it. For ”˜Akh Kashni’, Sameer Uddin came up with a fabulous  fusion of tabla and downtempo sultry groove.”

The black-and-white video of “Akh Kashni” shows Bhasin dressed as a bride who is on stage, singing to an empty concert hall and stripping concurrently. Says Bhasin, “We chose a vintage setting because we wanted the video to be poetic and carry retro beauty, almost like an Indian Moulin Rouge.”

Watch the video here: