Kochi: 17 artists from 6 cities have come together to create an enchanting Qawali believing in the magical power of music to bring empathy and healing for the world. Titled "Jannat-e-Khas", it talks about an ideal world filled with love, harmony and peace. The song is composed by Shabin and written by Pankaj Bhagat.
Krishna Bongane and Nila Madhav Mohapatra have rendered the song along with Shardul Naik, Yagnesh Salian, Prasad Manjrekar and Pranay Mohan Pawar as backing vocals. The cinematography of the song was done at each artist's place, adhering to the lockdown instructions.
Explaining about the work behind the production of the song, composer Shabin says, "We finished all the recordings in 4 sessions. Vocals and percussion were recorded in Mumbai, strings in Cochin, Bass in Kottayam and a few little synth stuff I programmed from Bangalore. A good amount of time was spent to get the mixing right as there were a mammoth amount of tracks. We finished the mixing a few days before the lockdown and wanted to do a cinematic video to go with it. But because of the lockdown, we took another direction. We shot footage of each artist at their homes following some standards like where to keep the phone, how the background should be, etc. I edited it all together from Bangalore to bring out the final video."
Jannat-e-Khas has been receiving tremendous positive feedback since its release on Muzik247 YouTube channel, with continuous flow of appreciatory comments from the viewers.