June 21, 2017
Actress Kalki Koechlin has turned
lyricist with a new video, titled "Noise", in which she recites a poem
written by her to "highlight the value of silence" in our lives. She
says she lives in a noisy neighbourhood and sometimes feels like going
to the mountains.
"Noise" was released on Culture Machine's digital channel Blush on
Wednesday.
"I live in a noisy neighbourhood. I am talking about my neighbourhood
in this poem. It shares my experience about Yari Road (Mumbai). It has
fish market, the sound of traffic, the sound of temple and Masjid --
they are a huge part of our lives. We can't reject it," Kalki told IANS
over phone from Mumbai.
"But sometimes you want it to be calm and quiet. It's been a real
discipline for me to come home in night and switch off my phone instead
of watching Facebook and seeing one video after another. Sometimes all
these noises can be distracting," she said.
Kalki feels in today's modern world "silence is golden".
"When we are quiet, then we can hear ourselves clean. That's how we
come up with original ideas and thoughts. Also, sometimes when we are
silent we listen to other people better. I personally felt the need to
get out of the city and go into the mountains or to go to a quieter
place," she said.
"In Bombay, it's really hard for me to read a book from cover to cover.
I'm not doing anything that's having a long commitment because our
concentration stands as such. We shouldn't forget the essence of being
human beings which is having respect for each other," she added.
Kalki, best known for her roles in films like "Dev D", "Shaitan", "That
Girl In Yellow Boots", "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara", "My Friend Pinto",
"Margarita with a Straw" and "Waiting", wrote "Noise" in October 2016,
for a poetry slam competition in Bengaluru.
"It's both a celebration as well as criticism of noise. Before any
visual memories, we usually have memories of sound and smell. I
remember my mother's voice. I remember the sound created by waves in
sea or the smell in our kitchen. These are very important parts of our
lives," Kalki said.
"The poem tells the importance of noise in our lives. But I have also
mentioned that so much voice sometimes takes our focus away from
hearing our own voice. The poem talks about the overwhelming value of
noise in modern day society," she added.