You don’t have to understand Swahili to follow this music video and its storyline. A viewer gets it right away that Jamal is singing about this wonderful girl who stole his heart. Whether you know the meaning of Siste or not, this video will give you a hint. The video is created with an authentic look of the vintage times, complimented with retro-style fashion. You can’t help but get nostalgic seeing the suspenders and the mud and wattle houses in the background.
Speaking of the dances, they perfecly paint the mood portrayed by the video. Not very slow, yet not fast, just the perfect speed to keep one locked in there. This video is proof enough that less is always more. Perhaps less is what we’ve always associated with most Jamal music videos – the simplicity and minimalism at exhibition.
How Jamal connects with this girl is very magical. It’s rare to see a Ugandan music video vixen pulling off a natural smile. Most of the time, we are treated to very forced smiles. This time round, the story is different, Jamal and this girl connect emotionally in this video.
Does the video have any flaws? Of course, we are denied close shot ups of most of the characters. I get a feeling that the post-editing failed to match up some parts of the dances to the audio.
And whereas the video was very minimalistic, it had a few amateurish displays when it comes to the lighting. You will notice lots of shadows that cloud up the faces in this music video. Some scenes are not visible, may be the vintage effects cause this lighting defect.