The teaser of the song Mera Makaan has been released. It is Aabha Hanjura’s most powerful and honest work so far, an emotional love letter to her lost home in Kashmir. Mere Makaan gives voice to many unsaid, untold, unanswered and unresolved feelings through the universally unifying feeling of nostalgia.
Inspired by true events, this journey is reminiscent of the time when Aabha was reduced to tears upon visiting her childhood home in Kashmir a decade ago and seeing it being reduced to a mere speck of the past. Aabha tries to weave in context by juxtaposing her own journey as a displaced refugee from the valley of Kashmir through the video that takes her down the long winding path laid with the stones of a bitterly heartbreaking journey.
The cathartic composition has been brought alive by the celebrated jazz pianist Aman Mahajan, with Jacob Charkey lending the melancholy on Cello. The whole composition has been strung together patiently by national award-winning music producer and audio engineer Mr KJ Singh.
As a Kashmiri Folk artist, Aabha Hanjura has done exemplary work to bring forth beautiful aspects of the valley and her culture to the forefront. Even her first album paid ode to her homeland’s diverse culture with playful songs like hukus bukus that climbed through the charts and went on to feature in the famous Amazon Prime web series Family Man, starring Manoj Banjpayee.
Her new show Songs Of Home has toured across the country successfully and played at prestigious venues like NMACC, is centered around her latest release Mere Makaan.
Talking about the song Aabha said, “Makaan is my honest heartfelt raw portrayal of what displacement means to me what it means to never have a sense of HOME, as a refugee in exile. This song is coming together of stories of an entire community across ages, who were driven out of their homes/lost their home, and have struggled to find their way back ever since. It encapsulates the entire journey of all emotions that ensue, from nostalgia to sadness to shock to hopelessness to anger and helplessness."
“I always knew the day I will be ready to tell this story, I will tell it in its entirety, having lived the life of a refugee in my own country for so long, I have always found it difficult and triggering to witness displacement across the world when it happens to people across the globe for many reasons. While I have never found an answer to what the IDEA OF HOME means to me even 33 years later - I hope this song can provide catharsis to those who like me struggled with the idea of Home," she added.
“May those seeking their way back home, find one, may those who die in exile, waiting to go back home find eternal peace to their souls, may this not be the end to our story, may there be a better story to tell," Aabha concluded.
