Advaita is India’s most distinctive brand of contemporary Indian psychedelia—fusing electronic and rock influences with traditional Indian Instruments. Having creatively amalgamated traditional Indian elements like sarangi, tabla and Hindustani classical music with the electric guitar, drums and synthesizers, Advaita’s music can best be described as post-fusion.
Their impressive music is appreciated across tastes and borders. The eight-member Delhi band was roped in for a track by Director Bejoy Nambiarr for recently released Amitabh Bachchan and Farhan Akhtar starrer, Wazir. “Khel khel mein” of Wazir—is a special rework of the track “Mo funk” from their second album, The Silent Sea which was released in 2012. Nambiarr made changes to the screenplay and created a scene to fit the track. The track has a monologue by Bachchan in background. The legendary Bachchan baritone gives the Advaita tune—a gravitas that suits the tone of the movie in true Nambiar style. The lyrics were written by Abhijeet Deshpande and the song was used for the trailer of the film.
“A friend of mine, Prashant Pillai happened to play our music to Bejoy and he got hooked to ‘MoFunk’,” says the band’s bassist Gaurav Chintamani. “I got a call from Bejoy a little later and he told me that he had written a scene for the film after hearing the track and wanted us to make a version of the track for this project that he was working on. He didn’t give me any further details.” Gaurav adds.
For a band that has been together for more than 11 years, Wazir wasn’t the first Bollywood offer that it received. But it was the first time that the band members were allowed to retain their creativity and originality. “Bejoy’s insisted that we retain our sound jumade. An Indie band’s scepticism towards mainstream Bollywood can’t be denied but we couldn’t have asked for a better first gig,” says Gaurav.
Interestingly, Nambiar didn’t share any footage with the band either. All they had to go by was a narration by the director about the mood of the song and the idea of how the song would be used in the film – against a game of chess.