Yours CLASSICally Naushad. Review on Taj Mahal Songs

?Taj Mahal? has been one of the most expected albums (at least by me) of the year since I heard the digital version of the all time classic ?Mughal-E-Azam? album composed by the living legend Naushad.

I was bowled over by the simplicity and the immortality of the MEZ songs and so are the songs of this album. I doubt if anyone could do better justice than Naushad to such historic movies especially those that belongs to the Mughal era in such a simple way. This simplicity is the beauty of the songs in this album that will extend the life of the songs.

Classics are all Simple Songs

A composer can easily make classical songs with complex notes that only scholars in music can understand but a musical genius will never do that, instead he will make it as simple as possible so that even a kid can catch the tune the moment it listens to the song and such a musical genius is Naushad and he has done just that in this album. There are no synthesized sounds and layering works in the songs which makes it a pure, unadulterated down to earth melody with a soul of its own.

In General

All the songs synch perfectly with the mood and era of the movie. The simple and elegant orchestrations bring that unique sound and feel of the old songs with contemporary audio quality. The other important aspect of the album is the choice of the singers. Hariharan and Preeti Uttam get the opportunity to sing almost all the songs in the album. What ?Mughal-E-Azam? was to Lataji is what ?Taj Mahal? is to Hariharan and Preeti Uttam. They have given their all time best performance in this album.

Now coming to the songs, there are totally 8 songs and the lyrics are penned by Naqsh Lyallpuri and Syed Gulrez.

Apni Zulfein Mere

The prelude of this song marks a grand opening of this contemporary classic. The orchestration instantly makes you guess the composer and so unique is the style of Naushad?s orchestration. The prelude starts with a simple piano piece that instantly catches our heart and then group violins takes over to play a stream of notes creating a pleasant ambience which ends with a clue of the main tune of the song.

Apart from the orchestration, it is pure Ghazal number with usual rolling tabla beats as rhythm. Hariharan?s mellifluous rendition and voice are as refreshing as a filter coffee in the early morning. While listening to the song with the walk man, I heard one more (some percussion or may be pad) beat appending rhythmically with that of Tabla, and this subtle sound adds a new flavor to the song.

Ajnabi Thehro Zara

The symphony of piano pieces, group violins, Hariharan?s alap and Preeti?s sweet vocal singing the first line of the song when this song starts is just out of the world. This is a usual romantic duet but the melody is great. The flute, as it plays the main tune in the interludes enhances and elevates the melody in the tune and creates a soothing effect.

Preeti Uttam does a great job and over shadows Hariharan in this song especially the way she renders the first few line in different way each time sounds great. Hariharan?s brief alap cut, pasted here and there all through the track is another sounds-good element of the song. This song is my pick of the album.

Mumtaz Thuje Dekha

Unlike the previous two songs in which orchestrations were only in the interludes, here the entire song has got only violin orchestrations in the background without any beats and that is an easy clue for one to guess that it is a pathos song. The simple and haunting main tune of the song instantly injects pain and sober into our soul. If the backing orchestrations are the soul of the song, Hariharan?s expressive singing is its heart.

The sweet brief alap ?Dilruba? sung by Preeti adds to the longing mood of the song. One really needs patience to hear this song till the end as it stretches long with same tune again and again but yet the melody and feel in the basic tune will arrest your attention and keep your engrossed till the end if you are a serious listener.

Teref Meena Bazaar

This track starts with a poem delivered by Om Puri (I guess) and then follows a beautifully written orchestral piece which takes us directly into the Mughal era. Sarangi takes the lead in between and plays some longing notes with a sober feel in it. The accompanying strings and group violins play notes that sound like a hybrid of Arabic and Hindustani classical music. The ending piece takes us to a completely different mood from that set by the track so far. It sounds like for a glorious moment and that makes it a track with a mix of many moods and emotions.

Ishq ki daastan

Such an album for a film on Mughal Era is incomplete without a qawwali number. Here we have another song that is too simple, in the typical format of the genre to which it belongs without any necessity to go for a fusion or complex arrangements to make it sound new as it has a simple catchy fresh tune and rhythm with two excellent singers doing their best job. The tabla rhythms in the background are quite different from usual.

Again the orchestrations are good in the interludes. Preeti Uttam and Kavitha Krishnamoorthy elevate the song with their soothing vocals and rendition. Though it is in the usual format, you cannot stop liking it for its authenticity of the sound of the period to which the song belongs.

Dilruba

It is again a pathos number. I would say this is only just-a-good-song in an album in which all others are excellent numbers. It is too situational and may blend well with the situation in the movie. Hariharan and Preeti do their job well again. The brief alap ?Dilruba? which we already heard in the few tracks before is used in this song well sounding the pain of separation.

Yeh kaund mujhe yaad aaya

This is a pure classical number sung extra ordinarily by Ajay Chakraborthy. His expertise in classical music is established well by Naushad. The way he stretches and modulates a single word in different ways sounds awesome. One need lot of patience to listen and enjoy this number as it is too slow but once you get into the world with Ajay?s heavy bass voice reverberating all around you will enjoy the divine melody in it.

I don?t know how these songs are composed because it seems the beauty of such songs depends completely on the innovative rendition and improvisation of ghamukkas in the words by the singers.

Taj Mahal

It is just a rehash and high tempo mixed version of ?Mumtaz? and ?Dilruba? song with choir rendering the word ?Taj Mahal? in the end which also is a fitting finale for this classic classical album on ?Taj Mahal?.

Go and Buy the album immediately if you want to know what music really is.