There have been several reviews written about this album. I had the chance to read most of those. All were excellent analyses of this latest venture by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy (SEL). In the face of those reviews, this one might look like a little baby, please pardon.
As usual, SEL has taken the'' less-treaded'' path in scoring music. Inspiration has been drawn from several fields of music, but I think is well within the limits when compared to their work in Lakshya. ARR's influence is un-mistakable, but that happens when a phenomenon happens in any field. When RD Burman transformed the music scene, there were several MDs (still there are...) whose music scores resembled RDB's. Can we blame them?
I really liked the selection of singers, for each track. Shankar has sung in almost all tracks, but I am guessing that it is a way to conserve costs, and after all, he is not such a bad singer like some other MDs. Sadhna sparkles in Ao Na, perhaps posing a question to the industry, as to why nobody has noticed her all these years! As I had mentioned in my earlier reviews, the acid test for a singer?s voice is when a slow-melodious number is assigned to them. Udit has also performed in a superior fashion. Shankar as usual, is at his emotive best. I will explain some of my observations as we go track by track.
The track ''Aao Na'' starts with an unconventional percussion. There is the sound of a drop, I guess mimicked by someone putting a finger into the inner cheek, and forcibly slipping it out. Look for an RDB sounding trick in the first few lines, specifically when Sadhna sings ''Chup Ho Kyon, Gaao Na'', the word Kyo--n Ga--ao is fluctuated in the typical RDB (or SDB) style. The hyphens in between represents note-slides (or ''Gamakams''). This is used again in several of the lines. In RDB's numbers, these slides were used to create what we call the ''RDB-Effect''.
Jatin Lalit, Anu Malik and several others have used this. Let me give you some examples from the originator. In the song from Tessri Manzil (O Mere Sona Re..) this trick is sprinkled everywhere from the first few lines to the following paragraphs: Hear closely as Ashaji sings the word ''S-o-nare?, where the hyphens represents the slides. These sudden spurts of note-slides were used in a peculiar way. I don?t want to beat this horse to death, rather, will give more information in the comments section. Coming back to this track, the background key board notes reminded me of the song ?En Kadhalae?, composed by ARR for the movie ?Duet? & and the starting music for the theme of the ?Titanic?. But again, IMHO, it is well within the limits.
?Dheere Dheere? starts with a common guitar pattern used in the background. But, I felt that this rhythm was inspired from ?Vellaippookkal? track from the Tamil movie ?Kannathil Muthamittaal?, composed by ARR. The crescendo is well handled by Sankar, with ease and emotion. IMHO, the song could have been handled slightly better by Abhijeet, KK & Shaan all of whom has that western pop like rendering styles when a crescendo is sung. Eg: Songs such as Tumhe Kaise (Dastak, Abhijeet), O Humdum & Tadap Tadap (KK, HDDCS) & Tanha Dil (Shaan). The second crescendo in the charanam is a bit more exuberant.
Sometimes, I wonder whether Shankar is performing better and better as a playback singer. His voice doesn?t flutter when those high pitched notes are sung, nor does it waver when he comes down to the softer lower pitched notes. Overall, a good job by the SEL team.
The next track ?Main Hoon? caught my attention for a couple of reasons. One, the song is tuned in a different manner. The vocals are purposefully tuned as though they are in conflict with the general background. To hear this, listen when Shaan sings ?Mere Jaisa--Ho Ga Kahaan? and ?Main Kya Hoon?.?, during the former line, you could hear high-pitched flutes contrasting the vocals and in the latter line, Shaan sings lower than the pitch, purposefully to create that rebellious, pop-song like effect. This could a powerful song for good picturization.
Again ARR?s influence is unmistakable. When Sunidhi sings ?Jao Jao Jao Na?, I cannot but remember the same style of singing in the track ?Jadoo? from Rangeela. But, the tune as a whole doesn?t resemble any one song. The rhythm with base guitar playing 4 different notes reminded me of the same usage by ARR in Sabaq Aisa (Tehzeeb) (hey, what?s with SEL and ARR re: rhythm). To appreciate this, listen to the starting of Sabaq Aisa. The percussion is aided by a heavy dose of base guitar with high pitched key board notes accenting in a complimentary fashion.
Now, you could hear the starting of ?Main Hoon?, you can appreciate the similarity. Secondly, Sunidhi has been given her part in this song. Her voice is well suited for this number. When the second music interlude starts, the music reminded me of some western number, again I cannot place it. The song flows well through the most part, however, towards the end SEL resorts to some wild percussion which doesn?t merge well with the rest of the song.
The track ?No No?? is an ordinary fast paced number. I liked the way Shankar has held his voice like a subdued whisper in pallavi (first lines). I think this number is the most challenging to sing, especially with some ?un-rap? like https://lyrics. Towards the latter part of the song, tabla beats are added to produce a different sound to the rhythm.
The track ?Pyaar main sau? is tuned in a symphonic style with vocals taking the place of that solo violin or piano or the flute. I am not sure whether I can ever explain, but I did not like this song. There is novelty all right, but lacks emotion and theme. Sometimes, it seems that whatever is said in the lyrics doesn?t matter. To give you an example, when Jatin-Lalit tuned the song ?Chand Tare? in Yes Boss, remember the specific words ?Bas Itna Sa Khwab?. You can clearly see that emotion when word ?Bas? is uttered?as if the person is showing us how small his dreams are (sarcastically of course). That emotion is lacking. However, that is not to say that musically this song is bad. The song has been composed in a complex manner and in that way, it is a creditable achievement.
The track ?Baat Samjha Karo? reminded me of ?Bombai se Aaya?. Maybe it was intended to sound like that. I liked the imitation of AB?s sound by Chetan. It sounded pretty good.
Probably, this is the first time in my short experience of writing Music reviews that I did not cross my word limit on my first draft. In my view, there are not many details worthy of analyses or controversy. There are a couple of fast numbers, a couple of slow ones and some in between. It is an average album, and it sounds good when you hear it. You might hear this one for a couple of weeks, and forget about the songs. On the whole, I would only recommend this for easy listening (and easy forgetting). If you are a person who is willing to buy CDs for only classic songs, or songs you would like to keep forever, you may not want to buy this one. However, if you are a person who would like an album for casual listening, you can get it.
I read in an earlier review by Suresh Kumar in MS that SEL has started sounding clichéd, I couldn?t agree more. They have! Though churning out melodies like this would have been good to RDB?s, IR?s or ARR?s career, they had also explored newer instruments, newer uses for ancient ones and used genres from almost every part of the world. Perhaps that is the next step that SEL could take, or, perhaps not!
