With Meesha Shafi, Abdullah Siddiqui produces his finest work to date

KARACHI: There’s just so much to say about Abdullah Siddiqui and Meesha Shafi in their newest song, ‘Magenta Cyan’. Produced during the pandemic, the video has been shot on an iPhone and directed by both Meesha and Abdullah.

At first glance, ‘Magenta Cyan‘ seems to be a love song. “I’ll be the best mistake that you make, I’ll be an easy heart you can break. I’ll be your lifeline,” sing Abdullah and Meesha, perfectly complementing each other’s vocals.

However, magenta cyan refers to the colours red and blue, without which life would pretty much be black, white and grey, as depicted in the video. “There’s no way out for me,” sings Abdullah as the song picks up pace towards the end, possibly talking about how difficult it is to escape abusive, co-dependent relationships as they have an almost hypnotic affect on those who get trapped in them.

The video perfectly captures the loneliness and lack of colour in one’s life after being drained from such a relationship.

With ‘Magenta Cyan‘, Meesha is further cementing what has been clear since her last couple of songs – she has no interest in producing feel-good pop songs. Pop music is usually much happier and upbeat, and earlier with ‘Mein‘ and now ‘Magenta Cyan‘, Meesha is maturing as an artist and taking on much more sensitive emotions through her music and performances.

She also comfortably shifts between modern and classic, singing in English and then dancing a modern interpretation of kathak.

The 18-year-old Abdullah is such an underrated artist. He first shot to prominence in 2018 with ‘Resistance‘, which earned him a Lux Style Award nomination as well as an appearance on Nescafe Basement. While his vocals don’t sound very different from 2018, (except the maturity that comes with age), his musical style has come a very long way in a very short span of time. In only a matter of two years, Abdullah has created a unique sound that is unlike anything Pakistani artists are producing right now.

Magenta Cyan is one of the best things to come out of 2020. Take a bow, Meesha Shafi and Abdullah Siddiqui.