‘E Hawa’: Meghdol’s ‘rare’ heartfelt tribute to a friend

Meghdol's new music video 'E Hawa' can be summarised in a single sentence - Meghdol on 'Hawa's boat. 'Hawa,' you already know. The debut film of director Mejbaur Rahman Sumon, who is also the founding member and vocalist of Meghdol. 

Over the course of the music video, two different plots continue to play out parallelly like a story within a story. The band members and the film's characters, both floating on a boat in the deep sea in the middle of a storm, look anxious and curious thinking 'how far will this wind drift me along?'. The band members look smaller, zoomed out, in comparison to the ones from the film. You can have your own perspective on the latter interpretation. Or you can sink into a lullaby that dives into a sea of nostalgia. 

Despite being celebrated as a promotional song for 'Hawa' which is set to be released countrywide today, the Meghdol members beg to differ. They do not see this as a promotional video, but rather a rare, wholesome tribute to a friend and a family member. Shibu Kumer Shill and Mejbaur Rahman Sumon, Meghdol's vocalists and songwriters, have been friends since way back. According to Shibu, this is a celebration of a friend's achievement through Meghdol's art.

Photo Credit: Prottay Hasan Drirho

Before going into further details, a little trivia for you - how often have you seen a band paying tribute to a film directed by one of their friends? You may have to get down with the history books and still probably have a hard time finding one.

"This culture of giving tribute is rare in our country. This is important and hopefully a new beginning," Shibu told The Business Standard (TBS).  

It may surprise a few, but Meghdol actually did not plan to create this song for Sumon's 'Hawa'. The band members did not know Sumon would name his debut film 'Hawa' back when the song was composed. 

"It is more like a spontaneous crossover. And we are really happy that it happened. 'E Hawa' was ready long ago, but to be able to pay tribute with the song means a lot," Shibu said. 

The heart-wrenching music at the beginning, the earthly vocal of Shibu along with the perfect blend of the guitar solo, clarinet, keyboards and drums will get you any day and stay with you forever. It feels almost like you are there with them on this voyage.

The band's guitarist Rasheed Sharif Shoaib also contributed to mixing duties apart from playing the guitar. Shibu composed the melody and wrote the lyrics. MG Kibria, Tanbeer Dawood Rony and Shourov Sarkar played the bass, keyboards and clarinets respectively while Amzad Hossain did the mixing and played the drums. 

"You can't differentiate 'Hawa' team from Meghdol and vice-versa," Shibu rightly said. At this point you are probably not wondering 'how', but if you are - Shoaib was the music director of 'Hawa', Sourav played the flute and Amzad did the mixing of the film. 

Sazal Alok, who edited the film, also had the duty to edit the music video.  You could guess the 'E Hawa' videography was directed by Sumon himself considering how the boat-themed music video was perfectly interconnected with the theme of the film. Interestingly, the boat which the Meghdol members were on was actually shot on a miniature boat gifted to Sumon by one of his friends, Nizam. 

'Aluminium Er Dana' to be completed within this year

While 'E Hawa' is a fresh new song by Meghdol in over two years, and also a tribute to a friend's film, it is actually their fifth song from their upcoming album 'Aluminium Er Dana'. Meghdol confirmed there will be two more songs in the album and they will be released between September to December, this year.

Photo Credit: Prottay Hasan Drirho

The previous four songs - 'Esho Amar Shohore', 'Na Bola Phul', 'Maya Cycle', and 'Tobu Mon' - all had different flavours to them. "We try to do spontaneous music. We don't force our creativity too much or refrain from any specific genre of songs. We actually have several songs ready, we are just releasing them one by one as per our convenience (mixing, mastering, music videos and all)," said the band's keyboardist Tanbeer Dawood Rony.

The album may not be released physically but there will be a few CDs produced as souvenirs. 

Just like their songs, Meghdol showed a unique way of celebrating a fellow musician and a friend's achievement. When Shibu said, "This is our movie, this is our song", his face beamed with joy. And rightly so. It is safe to say 'E Hawa' (and hopefully the film too) is here to stay with us for a long time, if not forever.