Hip-hop teams up with animated visuals to create the dystopian sci-fi that defines Poetik Justis’ next release, Kala Pani. The rapper reveals the story behind the first animated feature designed around an Indian rap album
An animated tech-spider
It is a day of dropped calls when we finally get through to Vineet Nair. The rapper who is best known by his alter ego, Poetik Justis, is the co-founder of B3 (Battle Bars Bombay). But the Mulund resident is now prepping for one of his biggest releases with the upcoming album, Kala Pani. The album release tomorrow will be accompanied by an animated short film — a first for Indian hip hop music.
Panels illustrating moments from the short film for the album, Kala Pani. Pics Courtesy/PoetikJustis
It began with the 2021 album Green Heart Astronaut, admits Nair. The album, inspired by the lectures of scientists Carl Sagan and Neil Degrasse Tyson that the rapper immersed himself during the pandemic, came out with visuals that captured the 1990s anime-style. Gundam, we ask? “Not a big fan of Gundam, but definitely love mecha anime,” is his reply. These visuals sparked the idea of creating a project that brings together a universe sonically and visually.
Mono-colour world
“I had begun work on the concept around post-colonialism, and how people are now imprisoned by the rule of their own people. It took a backseat in the pandemic, till I picked it up again to work in 2022. By then, the world had changed,” he shares.
So, 32-year-old Nair spent six months reworking the lyrics and the soundscape with producer HHB (Hip Hop Bhaiyya) to complete the album. With Artificial Intelligence (AI) raising new questions, the approach changed. “I realised that we have been robbed of our ability to focus. The danger of this slow fading attention is that everything is curated to fit into one pattern,” he says. This homogenisation is particularly restricting to artistes, who never fit into society.
A world without artistes
This is where the film of a world devoid of artistes took birth. Nair had already begun exploring multiple art forms to express his ideas with Green Heart Astronaut (2021). “I have always been a visual thinker. If we had to talk about AI and the human condition, we had to talk through the artists. That’s where the story began,” the lyricist reveals.
The short-animated film follows the journey of a rapper escaping a dystopian society. “It is a world where the artistes have gone missing. The government has appointed a team to bring them back into society,” Nair shares. Quite contextual in a world where artistes are increasingly hunted. “That is because artistes see the inconsistency in society so clearly and refuse to accept it,” is his quick reply.
Vineet Nair
While lyrics were the rapper’s domain, the visual element required an expert hand. The composer reached out to Bengaluru-based illustration and animation studio Gum Blue, and the Assam-based StudioZeng to shape them. It took a year and half of back and forth to finalise the visuals for the storyline. The result — a bleak, but captivating Blade Runner-meets-Maus creation. The lack of visual stimulation was in keeping with the raw bars of the artiste’s lyrics.
Visual aid
“Kala Pani is about the forces that are trying to rule us. The movie follows the narrative of a waiting game,” shares Nair. Understandably, since the album itself took a good seven years for completion. “Every artiste needs to have one project they put a decade into. Not for the money, or the fame. Just to leave something that carries their mark,” he signs off. Now, that’s a bar.
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