Naari Shakti

Aditi Ramesh (centre) in a still from the video for Shakti

It isn't always necessary that you deliver an empowering message sounding as serious as a school principal hauling up a truant kid. Sometimes, you can even be the class clown and make a meaningful impact. That's something Aditi Ramesh does with her new single, Shakti, where the singer takes a stand for female empowerment with lines like, "Time goes on/ And our prejudices grow strong/ Freedom of expression/ No more repression." The whole tune has a jovial feel to it even as Ramesh and a bunch of other girls dressed as pupils goof around on a school's campus, before the weight of a patriarchal world inevitably burdens their shoulders.

Musically, the track is a cornucopia of sounds, with Ramesh's South India-inflected English transitioning from a mellow pop tune to glitchy electronic beats. The essence of Shakti lies in its message, but throughout, its primary purpose seems to be entertaining the listener. And sometimes, the most powerful messages are packaged as entertainment, which is often the most impactful way of delivering them. Need an example? Think of Charlie Chaplin's iconic speech from The Great Dictator, where he parodied Nazi Germany.

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