MUMBAI: Only an artist of Irshad Kamil’s caliber can think so differently and have the vision to form a “Poetry Band”. Irshad Kamil’s band “INK” is all about poetry and a treat for poetry fans. The video of the first song of the album, Woh Ladki, launched by none other than A R Rahman, has already caught fancy of all the poetry fans and yesterday, his other song Aise Na Dekho was launched by ace director Anand L Rai.

While both the songs are about romance, the poet has given deeper meanings to them, as he always does, “The outer layer is certainly romance, but as you understand them, the songs have much more to offer. I always believe in expressing real romance through my songs. Even if you listen to the songs I have penned for my films, they are beyond the flowery romance. For instance, bedard thi zindagi bedard hai, from Agar Tum Saath Ho -Tamaasha. I don’t think today we get to hear such thoughts, but ironically this is how today’s romance is.”

The band INK has been performing live for the past two years, says Irshaad, “We started in 2015 and performed for live shows extensively at IITs, IIMs, Lit Fests and so on. The response has always been amazing. When I shared my thought with Agnel Roman, our lead guitarist and music director, he was very excited with the thought.”

Prajakta Shukre, Indian Idol S1 participant, is the voice for the words and has been a part of the band since its inception, “Agnel introduced me to Prajakta and asked me to see if she could be a part of the band. And I liked her voice and even as a person. So, initially, it was just I, Agnel and Prajakta who would tour and perform live. Together we have performed at more than 100 shows. Then slowly, I felt the need to go digital and reach out to more audience.”

The striking factor is the fact, that a poetry band has one singer and three instrumentalists. The band comprises of Prajakta Shukre (Vocal), Agnel Roman (Music Direction), Ragini Shankar (Violin), Shridhar Nagaraj (Keyboard), Ankush Boradkar(Flute) and Deepanshu Pandit (Guitar).

When asked why the inclusion of instruments in a poetry band, he says, “Some instruments sing. Ragini’s violin sings and so does Ankush’s flute.”

The name INK also stands out and one can co-relate it to the Urdu synonym of the word, “We named it INK because in Urdu ink means Shyahi, and one writes with ink, therefore, the name.”

The poet who has jotted lyrics for many blockbusters in Hindi film, explains the difference, “Lyrics can be termed as poems and poems can be converted to lyrics too. But what we are presenting are not lyrics, they are simple conversations and they aren’t situational either like it is in films.”

The response till now has been great, “Yes, we have received great response from the audience and the media too. We will now decide if we want to release videos for the songs.

Irshaad signs off saying, “Being a poet and a lyricist, I always felt that in our industry, words don’t get due importance and thus the idea for this band emerged, where the priority are words.”