It is a summer evening in Kathar, a village in Punjab’s Jalandhar district. Inside a local gym, a speaker no bigger than a shoebox, sits wired to a woofer thrice its size, propped up on a stack of weight plates. The bass cuts through the clang of barbells and the grunts of a final rep. […]
At his concert in Lucknow, when Diljit Dosanjh steps onto the stage and greets the crowd, the audience erupts in cries of ecstasy. As the set progresses, the crowd dances to every Punjabi beat. By the time Dosanjh closes his set with “Ikk Kudi” – the soulful ballad from film Udta Punjab – the same […]
Barely a few seconds into the Main Vaapas Aaunga album opener “Kya Kamaal Hai” — composed by A.R. Rahman with lyrics by Irshad Kamil — something extraordinary happens. In a touch that’s almost Gulzaresque in its simplicity, playfulness and sheer unexpectedness, Kamil rhymes ‘Yeh… chehre mehke hai’ — delivered in staccato fashion by Diljit Dosanjh […]
