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India Covid crisis: Music video brings smiles during pandemic

Mumbai - ‘Manzar,’ a song by Salman Ali and Vipin Aneja, featuring Prashantt Guptha, makes a bold attempt, and almost succeeds.

The ongoing pandemic has taken away the most personal, powerful and profound emotion that unites humanity: our smile. And to bring this back, ‘Manzar,’ a song by Salman Ali and Vipin Aneja, featuring Prashantt Guptha, makes a bold attempt, and almost succeeds.

Manzar,’ a song by Salman Ali and Vipin Aneja, featuring Prashantt Guptha, makes a bold attempt, and almost succeeds.

‘Manzar,’ the four-and-a-half-minute video, which has become a huge hit on YouTube brings the poignant parable of a photographer who lost all hope in these trying times. He sets out to capture the varied emotions of Mumbaikars and their city.

And when he begins photographing people across the metropolis at the height of Covid crisis, his smile returns as he sees people enjoying themselves, despite the problems. “Manzar is about hope,” director Devansh Patel told a newspaper.

It was shot in March in less than four hours, with three crew members and two hand-held cameras. “It was an ‘organic’ shoot,” says Patel. And the shooting took place at Bandra Fort (opposite Shah Rukh Khan’s lovely home Mannat), and at Yari road in Andheri.

It was written by the founder of Lafzon Music, Gilbert Chettiar, who had written the lyrics in London in August 2020. “When the world around us shuts down, we become aware and value people,” he said in the interview. “Whilst I was trying to reconnect during the crisis, I realised happiness is found in small things.”

Conceptualising a story for the four-minute video was tough for the director, but all he wanted was to take an optimistic view. “It is a story that not only inspires but puts a smile on everyone's face,” he adds.

Singers Salman and Vipin were brought together in the video. Salman is the winner of Indian Idol 10, and Vipin is a playback singer, who has performed songs in films including Jazbaa and Saheb, Biwi aur Gangster. “There is misery all around due to the pandemic and we seem to have lost our smiles,” said Vipin. “We hope ‘Manzar’ brings back smiles on people’s faces.”