Penn Masala: An "A Compelling" Group

What do you do when you are sitting in the midst of 15 committee members in a ’round table conference’ room with each pair of eyes glued to you during your protocol presentation and your brain keeps playing a ‘background music’ in your head? It gets messy, right? Strange are the ways of your inner-self, it keeps fooling around during the times you need it most to be focused. Same was the case with me a few days back. Well, I never imagined it would incapacitate my mind to such an extent to have those long ‘hangover’ effects.

Teri jhuki nazar-Without you: Watch the video through the link below

The song was a latest single of an American a cappella group, Penn Masala- Without You / Teri Jhuki Nazar! The top 5 things I loved about it were-

First of all, amazing choice of the two songs- ‘Without you’ by David Guetta which peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 rankings and ‘Teri Jhuki Nazar’ originally sung by Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan as the soundtrack of Murder 3 and one the immensely popular song among the masses. Both of these tracks are on my favorite playlist and hence, I couldn’t resist falling for this track too.
Secondly, the stupefying voices and the soundtracks of the Penn Masala group are a treat to the eardrums. The ‘Without you’ track by Chetan Khanna and ‘Teri Jhuki Nazar’ by Dilip Rajan, both of which did justice to their originals; the mix being a total hit. Not to forget the remaining members for their background music contributions.
Thirdly, the music video portraying a beautiful story of a heartbreak on one side and the magic of true love on the other. The respective songs totally blended with the visuals featuring ‘Arts House Dance Company’.
Fourthly, the pure magic this track sets when the two amazingly beautiful singles flawlessly fused together. Adding to this was the music toward the end with the chorus of both the songs that sent us all into a hypnotic, trance-like state.

“Teri zulf jab bhi bikhar jaati hai

Aye haseen tu haseen aur ho jaati hai

Jo kitaabo me padhte rahe aaj tak

Woh pari humko tujh mein nazar aati hai”

This was my favorite part, when Dilip Rajan sings the above second stanza of ‘Teri Jhuki Nazar’ leaving each of its listeners entirely spellbound.

Penn Masala is the world’s first Hindi a cappella group, formed by the students of University of Pennsylvania. Their music is influenced by Eastern and Western cultures that represent the group’s membership. Penn Masala combines various musical traditions, including Hindi film music, pop, hip-hop, R&B, rock, and Indian classical styles. The group also uses a wide array of languages in their songs. Their compositions are primarily sung in English or Hindi, but certain songs include Arabic, Punjabi, Kannada, and Tamil as well.

The above music video was their latest single that released last month. One more addition to the must-watch Penn Masala hits is the “Evolution of Bollywood Music-Penn Masala”. This video serves as a tribute to some of the timeless classics that we, our parents, and grandparents love. It features Bollywood music from the 1940s era till the current 2010s. It will take you down memory-lane and every hard-core Bollywood fan is bound to get nostalgic. Watch both of these now if you haven’t yet.