The indie rock outfit Madmast is just two singles old but their third and latest release is bound to raise some eyebrows. Titled Kaisi Ye Maaya, the song is a self-described ‘middle finger’ to the current political state of the country. The release of the song matches the date of the five-year anniversary of the infamous demonitsation. So, that says a lot in itself.

Lead vocalist Vaibhav Sharma helms the track with his powerful vocals that satirise the current regime while firing shots at shady business deals and environmental degradation under shoddy development plans. The accompanying music video itself features ‘a leader with a white beard’ while shifting between live-action and animated formats.

The lyrics are specific to our country but can be applied to criticise any unjust rule all over the world. Songs of such revolutionary nature are aplenty in the indie scene with some of the artists evoking a very performative brand of activism. However, for Kaisi Ye Maaya, the band attempts to just rant out their genuine feelings without any fake preachiness.

Clocking at over 4 minutes, one would fear for the song to get monotonous. Thankfully, there is a magnificent poetic interlude in between that finds Sharma breaking into the spoken word format to tell the story of a village and how it got sold by a leader.

While the leader exerted his dominance, he began turning his subjects into loyal slaves who would not dare to speak against him. The allusions towards threats to freedom of speech in India are quite obvious.

Ultimately, despite the song’s socio-political nature, the band knows that they might not bring a full-fledged revolution. But, as the five members put it, ‘But we would still like to greet the system with a stone-cold F*** you!’.

Verdict: A bold and unfiltered blend of rock and spoken word poetry with a powerful message.