The first song from Byatha Nei, Anupam Roy’s upcoming album of love songs, was unveiled recently. A melancholy love song in Roy’s signature style, the song titled Obastob prem, which offers an insight into modern urban relationships, also provides important hints about the defining mood of the new album.
Obastob prem narrates the story of an unfulfilled love affair through the recollections of a rejected lover. The music video shows the singer/lover (Roy himself) chancing upon an old handheld video camera. Browsing through it, he discovers old videos of his former lover in various moods that he had shot, and is painfully reminded of her. Darshana Banik, who plays the ex-lover, looks charming, bubbly and playful and shares a chemistry with Anupam that feels warm and cosy. From the visuals, it is apparent that the lovers had a sudden break-up, though no reasons for this are evident from either the lyrics or the video.
Set against a backdrop of monotonous urban life, the video also depicts scenes of decay in nature, reflecting the singer’s defeat and dejection. The lyrics explore the pain of unrequited love and speak of longing, heartbreak, and emotional vulnerability. The singer’s yearning for his former lover and his inability to let go become subtle expressions of his rejection and hopelessness, with the woman’s images in the video camera making him recall memories that he tries hard to forget, and which make the act of letting go more difficult for him.
Obastob prem is a song of heartbreak and lost love in which the singer tries to understand the nature of love, finally coming to terms with the truth that it is irrational, impractical and unrealistic. When his hurt and conflicted soul looks for further answers, he realises that romantic relationships are fragile, ephemeral and unpredictable. Yet the heartbroken lover decides that love is not about winning the partner over but rather about the choice to continue loving, even when it does not make any more sense to do so, because he himself is a “hopeless romantic”.
Obastob prem expresses the pain of emotional distance after heartbreak, and is an outpouring of the lover’s melancholy state of mind. With a reflective, sad undertone that almost turns into a plea for renewed consideration, the soft acoustic melodies of Obastob prem underline the heartfelt and sincere evocation of feelings of longing and loneliness expressed by its introspective lyrics. Roy’s raw, emotional vocals, bringing to life the simple, everyday language in which the song is sung, will connect with anyone who still continues to love deeply, having endured the pangs of love and loss.
