Ool Omal

Tell US about your album, Komal? Give Komal RizVi the cue, and see the veejay who's also the new kid in the overcrowded block of Indipo...

Tell US about your album, Komal? Give Komal RizVi the cue, and see the veejay who8217;s also the new kid in the overcrowded block of Indipop take off on what her debut album, Komal, means to her. Punctuation taking a toss, row of crystal bindis sparkling on her forehead, she gushes: 8220;It8217;s an amalgamation of my life, my work, my feelings. I8217;ve worked really hard at it, non-stop, for three months.8221;

Each lyric, each melody, in the papri-chaat of Punjabi and Hindi ballads and foot-tappers that make up this musical effort, has little bits of her soul in it. Or so this energetic twenty-something from Karachi, currently riding the popularity charts with her first single, Baujee, would have you believe. 8220;Baujee could have been in any language, and I8217;d still sing it, because I loved the tune when I first heard it,8221; she says. And she8217;s not doing this for any commercial purpose acirc;euro;rdquo; 8220;I just clicked with it.8221; A pause later, she crows: 8220;It8217;s totally me.8221;

And obviously, veejaying is totally her, going by the two flagship shows she anchors for Channel V 8212; BPL Oye! and The Indian Top 10. 8220;I like Top 10 because I know pop music. But Oye! is a bit tough acirc;euro;rdquo; somehow, I don8217;t fit into the Bollywood scene,8221; she explains. After leading a life that resembles an inter-continental cruise Dubai, Nigeria, Karachi, London, Rizvi, six months into Mumbai, is ready to call it home. 8220;You could be an alien, but as long as you have this and this she points to her head and heart, you8217;re accepted,8221; she exclaims, firang accent slipping into the occasional Mumbai bhelpuri. She8217;s still rooming at the Channel V guesthouse, but little Komal touches bring it closer to home Karachi, where her parents live.

Homesickness happens often, but Rizvi keeps her faith 8212; in herself, her parents, God, her music, humanity 8220;which, amazingly, is still there8221;. And though reviews of her album are only just trickling in, she insists: 8220;I project confidence, which comes only through faith. I can8217;t be sure of tonight8217;s performance she crooned to Annabellers recently, but I can be confident.8221; But if all else fails, she just runs up huge phone bills calling home.

Rizvi, you can tell, is smart. She8217;s also honest about what she doesn8217;t like. 8220;I read Sidney Sheldon, Virginia Andrews, but I don8217;t like reading up on politics and general knowledge. Frankly, it bores me.8221; What doesn8217;t ever bore this storehouse of spunk is music, of course. 8220;I really love music 8212; its my life, my passion, my career,8221; she says. Which is a good thing, for her star has just begun to rise.