MUMBAI: Singer-songwriter Jayant Sankla returns with Musalsal, a delicately crafted ballad that explores love in its quietest, most enduring form. In an interview with Radioandmusic, Jayant opens up about the inspiration, collaborators, and understated emotion behind the track that feels more like a whispered feeling than a full-blown declaration.
A Song Born from Stillness
“The idea for Musalsal came to me during a really quiet evening,” Jayant recalls. “One of those days when the world outside feels still, but something inside you is stirring.” It was in that solitude, strumming his guitar with no particular plan, that the melody emerged—soft and unhurried. “There was an emotion I was sitting with… I didn’t feel the need to explain or share, just let it exist.”
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Known for his earlier collaboration with Bhavya Pandit on Halke Halke, Jayant says the new track offers a very different emotional palette. “Halke Halke came from a place of confusion… Musalsal feels calmer. It’s not trying to prove anything.” Musically, too, it’s stripped-down and intimate, featuring just guitar and mandolin to preserve its raw emotional core. “There’s restraint in this one… like it knows what it’s feeling and doesn’t need to be called out.”
A Word That Felt Like a Feeling
The title Musalsal—an Arabic word meaning continuous—felt like a natural fit. “I’ve been drawn to that word through poetry—Ghalib, Faiz, Faraz,” Jayant shares. “It really stayed with me after I heard it in Phir Le Aaya Dil. The word didn’t feel forced. It felt like it had always been a part of the song.”
Even the video, shot in a single unbroken take with windmills gently turning in the background, visually mirrors the song’s message of continuity and quiet rhythm. “They just keep moving with the wind, no rush, no noise,” he explains. “That felt like the perfect metaphor.”
Crafted with Care
Jayant credits much of the song’s warmth to his collaborators. “Ankitraj brought in not just the guitar but also the mandolin — the way both instruments play off each other is where a lot of the emotion comes from.” Sound engineer Pankaj Borah ensured the mix preserved the space and honesty of the song. And the video, directed by Mayur Erulkar, was shot in a single fluid take to reflect the song’s unbroken emotion. “Even the artwork by Darshita Rastogi looks like how the song feels.”
A Moment of Quiet for the Listener
More than anything, Jayant hopes Musalsal offers listeners a moment to breathe. “It isn’t about grand gestures,” he says. “It’s about those feelings we don’t always name but still carry with us every day.” He adds, “Sometimes we forget that silence has its own sound, and that music doesn’t always need to fill every space.”
With Musalsal, Jayant Sankla invites us to slow down, listen carefully, and remember the gentle ache of unspoken love—one soft chord at a time.
