Upsetting, heart wrenching and even grose – ‘Jalti Hai’ is just like how the experience of domestic violence be, for a woman. A storytelling song about a girl who has seen violence on her mother since childhood, and later in her marriage, she falls in the same situation and becomes a survivor of violence and oppression of her husband. Yet, with grit, she gathers herself and stands out against her husband’s toxicity, setting an example for her daughter to not be a victim of violence. Well, for Women’s Day, it might be a harsh way to celebrate the day, yet if it gives recognition and identity to even one survivor of violence, it makes it a celebration. The song is written by Ashant Anu and produced by Hisab in collaboration with Isaiko.
Ashant Anu (a.k.a. Shantanu Salhotra) is a well-known face of the Underground Delhi Hip-Hop circuit. He is a Rapper and Spoken Word Artist, born and brought up in the streets of Punjab, he is capable of spitting verses in 3 languages. His interests lie in making mainly lo-fi rap music, often inspired by the lyricism of Urdu Shayars like Jaun Elia, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Shiv Kumar Batalvi etc. With diverse and deep lyricism being his forte, he has battled in several hip hop events of the country. His recent single, ‘Jalti Hai’ is a certified banger and is quite unique and stands out in his discography, which consists mainly of Lo-Fi rap songs. ‘Jalti Hai’ is a harsh, hard-hitting banger that is perhaps made to make the listener uncomfortable.
Hisab, who produced this banger, is well known upcoming underground music producer in the underground Indian Hip-Hop all the way from Gujarat. He has been producing for close to about four years and makes a genre which he calls ‘experimental bass’, he is a versatile music producer and can go all the way from lofi to face melting bass drops. He is also a part of the collective which is called as ‘Zanjeer’ which is supported by legendary ‘Sez’.
In the present context, songs like ‘Jalti Hai’ hold a much larger significance than we think. Particularly talking about the youth, they are highly influenced by the music that is being produced in the mainstream industry, and a maximum of them are just sexist and problematic on various social grounds. Among them, this song is a reminder of how still we have a lot of social evils that need to be eradicated. Domestic violence is an issue, most normalised in our country. It is like this sparkle the fire that we need to shackle the chains of patriarchy that have been holding this country back for centuries. And perhaps, what day can be better than Women’s Day to release this song. Hence, Ashant Anu decided to release it on Women’s Day.
Making of ‘Jalti Hai’
Hisab, who is the producer of the song once shared this extremely dark melodious beat. It was a harsh, hard-hitting instrumental beat that just matched the kind of lyrics I write but it wasn’t lo-fi which generally is my type and genre. But the beat made me step out of my comfort zone to write banging lyrics and eye-opening bars. The Idea of ‘Jalti Hai’, the theme of ‘Jalti Hai’, – Domestic Violence came to me while reading a news article about a survivor of domestic violence. In the process of writing this song, I stumbled upon a few Punjabi poems to learn about gender politics which added the fuel to the fire of writing. When the song was done, I approached Ishika Aggarwal to direct the video and Nimisha Singh to perform in the video. Isaiko took care of its Video Production.” – Ashant Anu
About Isaiko
Isaiko is an artist collective that focuses on the growth of indie artists, founded by Mrinal Mandal who is an artist himself. In this song, Ishika, one of the core-member of Isaiko’s creative team, directed the video and helped in bringing Ashant’s words to life. Astitva provided the resources for the music video and Nimisha who modelled in the video was given the offer to act through Isaiko only.
Ashant Anu wishes to remove the stereotypes people have, for the rap culture, for rappers or for hip hop as a genre so to say. His major previous releases, including his EP – Nazariya based on Mental Health and Human Emotions, and singles like ‘Kuch Bacche’ based on violence on students during Jamia and JNU protests, and ‘Kya Chal Rha hai’ which was on evil political events of the country have been critical of the social evils in the society and he desires to make more such songs in his life.
