After receiving praise for his acting skills in HBO’s The Night Of and his Marvel Studios film Venom, multi-talented British-Pakistani musician Riz Ahmed (Riz MC) has now released his latest single, ‘Mogambo.’
The track – whose title has been inspired by Bollywood’s cult-favourite villain of the 80s, Mogambo from the film Mr. India – explores the idea of masculinity in the South Asian perspective as it looks at the Akhara Pehelvaan’s and questions the normative idea of ‘manliness’.
Regarding this, Riz had also written in a post on Facebook that the song tries to look at South Asians as they really are without stereotyping them.
“Brown men usually are shown as insane & scary, or weak & meek,†he wrote. “Rarely as complex, contradictory, & fully human. But these guys will kick your ass while wearing floral thongs. F*** what you thought about us.â€
The video also quite interestingly weaves the transgender community within the narrative, which gives ‘Mogambo’Â that distinctive edge Riz always goes for.
Tom Hardy gives us his best #mogambo – what’s the verdict?
Think u can do better?
Post urs here with #mogambo before the single drops Oct 3rd… pic.twitter.com/TEkyvi9vdt— Riz Ahmed (@rizwanahmed) September 30, 2018
Previously, the actor had also made Hollywood actor and his co-star in Venom, Tom Hardy, say Mogambo’s signature dialogues, ‘Mogambo Khush Hua’ in a now-popular video.
Check out the song here and tell us what you think (WARNING: explicit lyrics)
