Sonu Nigam’s ‘Bitter Betrayals’ Echoes Despair

MUMBAI, (IANS) – Sonu Nigam, who is known for his melancholic, somber, and passionate tone, has released his latest number ‘Bitter Betrayals’. “The track is an emotional one and is deeply rooted in melancholy. It echoes the bitter feelings of heartbreak, as well as the resulting despair, misery, longing, and regret.

The song sees Sonu Nigam giving a very soft vocal performance before escalating it with the accompanying instrumentation.

His voice is mellifluous and passionate as usual, but more than any melody what hits the most is the sense of betrayal and desperation in his voice, which really hits the listeners and does justice to the song’s title.

While he is singing about the heartbreak of loving someone so much that their absence or them leaving you, makes you hollow and alone as he is singing about how his own love has been betrayed, it feels like a bit of self-mockery.

Somewhere underneath, there is a layer of his voice which almost feels as if he is mocking the very idea of falling for someone who may very well be responsible for his own heartbreak.

The instrumentation is simple enough and mostly features elements of electro-pop infused with film music. With some samples playing in the background, this is one of the rare instances where a Bushan Kumar production has a sound that is deliberately restrained and does not have an overpowering bass.

The electronic drum mix is perhaps a bit too soft because while rhythmically fine, it doesn’t sit all that well in the scope of the whole production.

While Sonu Nigam’s voice is the best point, there are also the accompanying visuals of the music video which do a fantastic job. Narrating a whole story where Sonu Nigam is sitting in his chair near a fireplace, the video picks up from one of his earliest performances before cutting to the words, “30 years and 6,000 songs later.”

After that, the video shows a happy lovey-dovey couple dancing around at the sight of multiple windowpanes. Initially, it is the season of full-on romance as the couple dances, hugs, greets each other, and even offers one another bouquets of flowers.

Then one day, the marriage collapses. While the man tries his best to get his lover to stay, even getting on his knees, his estranged lover pays him no heed as she packs her bags and leaves him.

Intercutting with shots of Sonu Nigam singing as his voice grows more morose, there are snippets of the broken man offering flowers to an empty chair intercutting sporadically with the older visuals of his wife. The man then proceeds to dance around in a morbid fashion in dark light offering flowers, before Sonu Nigam is seen in the final shot picking up those flowers, leaving them on a chair, and leaving.

‘Bitter Betrayals’ is the perfect name here, because while it is done in the context of love this song also greatly resonates with the universal feeling of betrayal and the bitter feelings that come along once hard-earned trust is broken. The song has been released under the label of T-Series.