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Episode 5 (Realisation) opens with Abida Parveen treating us to yet another of her typical renditions, this time with Soz-e-Ishq. Like her previous songs even this one is about 10 minutes long, and like her previous ones the tedium is nowhere felt. Starting from the unaccompanied ad lib segment you will be hooked to Abida’s voice. Even after the accompaniment kicks in their job is mostly nominal as the song entirely belongs to Abida. Amanat Ali follows with a patriotic song, Ae Watan Ke.. While he does a good job of the rendition part, the song lacks the energy that would generally be associated with a patriotic track, and Amanat Ali’s soft voice also sort of works against it. Good melody, but couldn’t really picture it as patriotic. Qawwali brothers Rizwan and Muazzam give another NFAK-esque powerhouse rendition in Jana Jogi Dey Naal. Though the song in itself is not very great, the exuberant singing sort of props it up.
Tina Sani‘s previous performance in Episode 3 wasn’t a totally engaging affair, but in Episode 5 she manages to make it up quite a bit with Nawai Ney. But while her singing is brilliant as usual, what really gets you hooked to the song are the initial violin sequences and the soulful flute interludes towards the end, culminating in a mindblowing crescendo! And closing off a wonderful season is Sanam Marvi‘s earthy sufi in Manzil-e-Sufi. Beautiful tune, and brilliantly executed. The choral sargam addition towards the end works totally for the song. Sanam Marvi really has been one of the best additions to Coke Studio this season!
Episode 5 is a step lower than its predecessors with just three standout songs, but Season 3 in its entirety has been better than the previous ones. Hope the upward graph continues in subsequent seasons too. And hope the next season comes soon! You can download the songs here.

Music Aloud Rating: 8/10

Recommended Tracks: Soz-e-Ishq, Manzil-e-Sufi, Nawai Ney

Lalit Pandit‘s sole offering for Dabangg in the form of Munni Badnaam, though the staple Salman Khan folksy dance number, turns out to be a better job than Sajid Wajid generally pull off, thanks to a commendable arrangement highlighted by an acoustic guitar loop. Mamta Sharma and Aishwarya put enough life into the vocals so as to not waste the composer’s efforts. (The official Dabangg site strangely credits Lalit only among the lyricists! Shoddy job that! Talking of lyrics, “Le Zandu Balm hui Darling tere liye“? Really? ) The song seems to be composed in Madhyamavathi (Madhmad Sarang in Hindustani, wiki tells me) which is in general a very pleasant raga in any case, so that could have helped I am guessing. The remix is a far cry though, diluting the folk effect as usual.

Though faintly reminiscent of Surili Ankhiyon Wale probably due to the Rahat factor, Tere Mast Mast Do Nain has enough elements in its arrangement, especially the choral and interlude portions, to have you listening, though not sure for how many times. And as they did with Surili.., the composers come out with a duet version of this one too, Shreya Ghoshal joining Rahat for a brief cameo. Even then her rendition adds to the beauty of the song and makes it a better version than the solo. The remix is also pretty well-made, especially the innovative opening sequence. Chori Kiya also faces a similar fate as the previous one, even more severely, that of having a tune that has a lot of heard-before elements. Sonu and Shreya are impeccable as always on the rendition front but the melody has too much of the ghisa pita components to have your attention for long. The first thing that is bound to come to your mind when you listen to Udd Udd Dabangg is the title song of Omkara. With a lot of factors in the arrangement and Sukhwinder‘s rendition literally crying out the similarity, the duo still do try to add some elements of their own. The song is a good work in entirety, but with this comparison coming into picture they lose out to Vishal Bharadwaj. Sajid-Wajid present an improvement over their own general dance tracks, in Humka Peeni Hai, adding some smart semiclassical elements sung by Master Saleem. But the Salman factor finally wins over the rest and it ends up just an average dance number. The remix doesnt make it any better. In the end comes the theme, replete with Spanish guitar loops. While the track is totally functional, with dialogues et al, listening to the Latin elements is fun!

Dabangg is once again the customary Salman Khan soundtrack, but Sajid-Wajid and Lalit Pandit manage to make it more enjoyable than the previous ones in that line.

Music Aloud rating: 7/10

Recommended Tracks: Tere Mast Mast, Munni Badnaam, Udd Udd Dabangg

(For listening to the soundtrack online, click here.)

The semiclassical melody that kicks off the soundtrack, Aankhon Mein Neendein bears all stamps of a KJo-SEL product, a la Sajda, Mitwa et al. Nevertheless the arrangement has enough spunk in it to make you forgive the repeat element. Plus Rahat Fateh Ali and Shreya Ghoshal do such a beautiful job on the vocals that its hard not to hum along. SEL‘s tribute to Elvis’ Jailhouse Rock in the form of Dil Khol Ke, works majorly owing to the charm of the original itself, though to SEL’s credit they do manage to effectively add some of their own stuff to it. The piano in the first interlude is superb, but I have a feeling it was there in the background of the original as well. The vocalists, Anushka, Akriti and Suraj Jagan, manage to do a good job, but of course no one can match Elvis! Not SEL’s best tributes nevertheless. That would still be Pretty Woman.
The pick of the album happens with Reham O Karam, Shankar Mahadevan and Vishal Dadlani starting off what seems like a piano-backed unplugged track before classic rock elements kick in. The second interlude consisting of a guitar solo backed by an orchestral string sequence is simply brilliant! I must say the chorus singing the Reham O Karam refrain reminded me a bit of Udaan. The serene romantic melody that is Hamesha & Forever again contains everything that a SEL melody signifies in terms of arrangement. The presence of Sonu Nigam alongside Shreya further cements the feel. A good listen, though unlike Aankhon Mein here the repeat factor is bound to grow on you after a few listens. For most part, Sun Le Dua is pretty much an unplugged track, Shreya crooning soulfully to a piano-strings backing. But towards the end the flute (presumably played by Naveen Kumar) takes up the lead and finishes the song in style. The instrumental theme provides a wonderful closure to proceedings with its ambient orchestral elements dominated by the flute and violin. Wonder why the Cerejo couple, Neuman Pinto and Vivienne Pocha were credited on this one as I could not discern vocals at any point.
While the soundtrack for We Are Family is a good package from SEL, it is replete with telltale Karan Johar-esque elements which tell on a couple of songs. It would be best that he change composers for each of his movies.
Music Aloud Rating: 8/10
Recommended Tracks: Reham O Karam, Sun Le Dua, Aankhon Mein Neendein