It’s difficult to review a song on mute, but an attempt perhaps apt and required when the singer packages her song, in this case a cover of Aaj Jaane ki Zid Naa Karo, also for the deaf.

For someone who neither knows sign language and is bereft of knowledge when it comes to the finer nuances of Hindi, Urdu or Persian, in this case the writer of this piece, the instinctive thing to do is to perhaps look for patterns that could help quietly communicate the temper of the song.

Abhishruti’s choice of song does offer a pattern: the main choral line, for example, is repeated about 12 times after the initial introduction, when the actual rhythm sets in. Accompanied by well-practised hand signs, it sketches a striking picture, in silence and expressions of affection, of longing, of a lover’s plea against possible separation from a beloved. The verses before and after seem to build on the choral insertions, well thought out, and painstakingly put together, with Abhishruti communicating with her audience, however quietly seated they are in her mind, their silence studied and unmistakable.

The original song of which Abhishruti does a cover, was written by Indian-Pakistani lyricist Fayyaz Hashmi, and set to tune by Sohail Rana, a Pakistani composer.  

Music has its ways–even when it is seen and not heard. One wonders if a Rap artiste can rap in sign language. Conversely, what could have been Beethoven’s thoughts as he scored his famous Sixth, his Pastoral Symphony, when he was deaf, or, for that matter, his Moonlight Sonata, when he is believed to have been slowly losing his hearing, when those notes came together in those brilliant compositions? Come to think of it, there is a striking, rather chiselled but luxurious, repetition of notes in the first movements of the Sonata, just as in Hashmi and Rana’s composition, though placed a little sparse perhaps in comparison. Coincidence, in all probability, as we don’t know how Hashmi may have planned his song, but difficult to miss.

Watching–or listening to–Abhishruti’s cover, one can only imagine how, for example, American singer-songwriter Mandey Harvey, who can’t hear, brings about her creations, listening to the tempo through her feet. The final objective is however achieved, in every stanza, tugging as the music does at the heart-strings of the viewer-listener. Between what Mandey composes and Abhishruti sings and sketches, the language of sign is all-pervasive, and touchingly warm and personal.

As challenging as it may be, one wishes more singers did this. On, and off, mute, Abhishruti Bezbaruah Rajkhewa deserves an encore.

(Photo Courtesy Abhishruti  Bezbaruah Rajkhewa’s FB Page)