Time and again, singers and musicians have come up to play with one of the hit numbers of 60s Chaudavin ka Chand. The inescapable charm of this old classic manages to allure the audience everytime.
Karan Oberoi, who recently released ‘Retronica’- a 15 songs album, also introduced a refreshing version of this classic. The idea was to give the old orchestration a fillip by adding a modern touch without losing the essence of the melody. Karan has not only produced the music along with his acoustic 5 member band, but has also written the narrative of the video.
Throwing light on the making of this epic number, Karan says, “The idea was to create a storyline and a narrative structure like the good old days of indie pop, when a lot of thought and effort went into producing the right kind of visuals to enhance and amplify the music.
The video follows the story of a young girl who has been a huge fan of Karan Oberoi from his Band Of Boys days and dreams about meeting him one day. Luck worked in her favour as she gets an opportunity to catch a glimpse of the actor. A sensual scene is being shot. Enamoured by the scenario, she fantasizes about being intimate with him. For her, he represents the Chaudavin ka Chand of her life! As the dream ends she realises that she is all alone on the set. As she walks out, she notices a door ajar and Karan sitting there in his makeup room, wearing kurta pyjama and sipping tea from the saucer! As their eyes meet, he shyly wishes her Namaste! A complete study in contrast to how she had been fantasising about him. Disappointed she walks away as the reel world came across so different from the real world. She goes back to letting him live only in her dreams!
“Chaudavin ka Chand’s video is a sensual take on the old classic, with a more modern, slightly erotic approach. The underlying theme is about alter egos and how our entertainment industry is like a beautiful bubble, where what you see is not necessarily, how it actually is. The depiction is far removed from realities,” adds Karan.
Considering it to be one of the most difficult songs to recreate, model turned actor says, “owing to the cult status of the song and the beautiful picturization in the original version, it was very difficult to bring out something that justifies the standards of this classic. After a long jamming session, we came up with something that sounded just right to the ears and hence went ahead to produce it! There was a similar apprehension regarding the video as well. I just wrote a story after listening to the song a couple of times, and later shared it with my director who quite liked it.
Since music has always been his first love, Oberoi never compromises for anything he is not sure about. Even in this case, as soon as he got the first cut of the video, he preferably showed it around to all his women friends to get their point of view because of the intimacy involved!
“The last thing I want is for it to be offensive to my friends as they have always been and will be my core audience! I want the video to be romantic, sensual, erotic and dreamy, and not sleazy, objectifying or off-putting! It’s only after I was reassured that they all unanimously loved it, is when I went and finalized the cut,” mentions Karan, who is looking forward to the release.
The song was out on the Karan Oberoi’s YouTube channel on November 7 and being well received by the audience till now.
