Listen to the soundtrack here.

The soothing twangs of the mandolin and guitar, Mohit Chauhan singing with an amusingly matching nasality, that’s how Rockstar’s opening track Phir Se Udd Chala starts off. And then A R Rahman starts adding on layers in his inimitable fashion, until towards the fag end the undesirable addition of a techno loop happens. The anthemic Jo Bhi Main also has Mohit on the vocals, singing to an invigorating guitar-led background (totally loved the lead hook), Rahman giving a very live feel to this one. Very addictive, the song. Song no.3, Kateya Karoon, brings Harshdeep Kaur on the vocals (with Chaiyya Chaiyya lady Sapna Awasthi on backing vocals). Being ARR a plain vanilla Punjabi song was never expected, and the man doesn’t let us down, crafting the most richly orchestrated Punjabi-flavored song I have heard in recent times. And what flawless singing by Harshdeep! The only regret I had when I heard Kun Fayakun in the promo was that it was under four minutes, which I thought was the original length. How wrong I was. The actual song is close to eight minutes of pure bliss, Rahman NEVER goes wrong with the devotional genre. And the man himself gets behind the mic with Javed Ali and Mohit Chauhan to round it off in style. Watch out for a brief twist at about 5:45. Sheher Mein charms for its peppy tune ably rendered by Karthik and Mohit Chauhan, but also for the way the situational dialogues are peppered all through the track. Rahman makes interesting use of Mohit’s voice in the groovy Spanish (with occasional East European-esque garnishing) Hava Hava, Vivianne Chaix, Tanvi Shah, Suvi Suresh and Shalini supporting him well on the chorus. Special mention is deserved by George Doering for his Spanish guitaring (also dulcimer, I read, though I could not place it exactly) and the fabulous violin by Ann Marie Calhoun. You can actually feel the pain of the protagonist in Aur Ho, such is the rendition by Mohit, with an equally efficient Alma Ferovic on the backing vocals (traces of mayamalavagoula raga, I felt).

Naadaan Parindey has ARR back on vocals with Mohit, but here the clear winner is the composer’s extremely heady arrangement that touches elaborate anthemic proportions in places. Kavita Krishnamoorthy’s reunites with ARR after a long hiatus (Main Vari Vari was their last afaik) in Tum Ko, but the result isn’t something that would count among the best songs from the combo, carrying a very heard-before feel about it. The orchestration of Tum Ho, sung by Mohit and Suzanne, also faces a similar issue, the arrangement and the tune quite evocative of ARR’s work for Yuvvraaj. And then comes the song that has been one of the prime contributors to the buzz around the soundtrack, the song that is trending on twitter as I write this, Sadda Haq. And the song totally, TOTALLY, lives up to the hype that it created. Orianthi’s proficient guitaring, Mohit’s frenzied singing, enough to drive you into a trance of sorts! Ranbir does a decent narration of The Meeting Place, apparently based on a poem by Rumi. The composer closes the soundtrack with two instrumental pieces, Tango For Taj – which starts off with a lovely interplay between piano and accordion before other instruments kick in to produce an “Indianized” Spanish piece, and The Dichotomy of Fame, where Balesh on shehnai and Kabuli on guitars effect a haunting theme song.

Imtiaz Ali has always displayed a good ear for music, but in Rockstar he has totally outdone himself. A soundtrack of absolutely epic proportions. A. R. Rahman, thou truly art God.

Music Aloud Rating: 9.5/10

Top Recos: Don’t bother, just go listen to the soundtrack.

The title song provides a sombre, normal start to Beete Pal. There is nothing groundbreaking about the track whose high points are Sanjay Divecha’s captivating guitar phrases and Nandini Srikar’s singing. Hummable tune though. Madhosh starts off promisingly, Nandini pulling off a semiclassical ad lib of Urdu lyrics, penned by her and Shaleen Sharma (ex-drummer with Parikrama, ex-lyricist with Agosh), with trained ease. But then the instruments kick in and sort of Bollywood-ise the song. The use of harmonies all through the song is fabulous, especially in the title refrain, but the arrangement lets down. Raaz Ko Raaz is where the fusion elements really start showing up, a sweeping strings-led arrangement backing a ghazal-based tune. And the effect is quite lovely, Kai Eckhardt on the bass helping a great deal. Nandini’s adeptness at the use of vocal harmonies comes to the fore yet again with Kyon Maane, a haunting tune fairly decently arranged. I especially liked the sarangi segment at the start. Marc Layton-Bennett hasn’t anything creative to do on the drums though. The guest bassist for Sawan Beete Jaaye however, Michael Pope, makes his presence felt big time in the interludes. One of the picks of the album from the fusion perspective, this song too.

Maula Mere has a very interesting arrangement, the kanjira (Vivek Rajagopal)-guitar (Kai Eckhardt) interplay in particular. But the tune fails to match up, and the song fares much lower than how it could have. The preachy Ud Jaa makes for a good listen, but again the template bears a very Bollywood-esque flavour. Duniya follows the same route, the lessons of life and everything, but the arrangement is more engaging in this case. And finally, Naina Baan Padi (the video of which is embedded below) is undoubtedly the best song of the album with its imaginative fusion. Nandini totally aces the singing (mostly in raag Nandkauns, she tells me) and the arrangement in this one, helped amply by Guitar Prasanna, bassist Steve Zerlin and drummer Atma Anur. Prasanna tops things up with a trademark carnatic guitar solo in the second interlude.

An interesting debut album with occasional spikes indicating the potential of Nandini Srikar the composer (though I would have been happier with an entire album on the lines of Naina Baan Padi). As for Nandini Srikar the singer this is just a reinforcement of her vocal prowess.

Music Aloud Rating: 7/10

Top Recos: Naina Baan Padi, Raaz Ko Raaz, Sawan Beet Jaaye

You can hear previews of all the songs here.

Retro seems like the flavour of Malayalam music this season – almost every movie features at least one retro tribute/remix. So in Indian Rupee Ranjith gets composer Shahabaz Aman to do, through Pokayaayi, what seems like a reprise to this classic Baburaj song from Umma, and the result is fabulous. The yesteryear-ish orchestration is simple and addictive, the singing by Venugopal and Asha G Menon spot on. Anthimaanam is just the general sugary-romantic song (Mohanam-based?), that owes a lot of its charm to MG Sreekumar and Sujatha in an otherwise heard-before template. The real winner of the soundtrack though, is the final track Ee Puzhayum, that works beautifully in both its forms. While in the original version Shahabaz weaves a haunting strings-led fabric for the melancholic tune, in the unplugged edition he sheds the layered orchestration for a couple of acoustic guitars, and produces an equally appealing track. And a superlative effort by Vijay Yesudas both times, it is indeed gladdening to see the kind of improvement he has shown from his initial days.

His songs for Pakal Nakshathrangal might have gone unnoticed, but Indian Rupee will surely do the needful for composer Shahabaz Aman. Ranjith is not someone who wastes the songs in his movies.

Music Aloud Rating – 7.5/10

Top Recos – Four songs, what is there.

The Rise Of Damo sung by Hao Wang makes for a lovely listen – despite the song as such sounding nursery rhyme-ish in many places – coz Chinese music always has that mystic air about it and charms in almost every form. Not to take any credit off Harris Jayaraj though, for a matchingly captivating arrangement punctuated at the right places with carnatic elements (veena has been played by Rajesh Vaidhya). The melancholic Yamma Yamma rides quite heavily on the shoulders of SPB’s soulful vocals and the ghatam phrases by Karthick. The arrangement otherwise sees its highest point in the second interlude where Shwetha Mohan plays a cameo. Innum Enna Thozha similarly works majorly owing to Balram’s singing and that bass loop on which HJ builds quite a compelling anthemic framework. Naresh Iyer and Suchitra play their support role well.

And with the above three songs end everything that Harris Jayaraj has to offer newly as part of 7aam (or 7aum?) Arivu. The other three songs are inevitable HJ rehashes. Mun Andhi is the regular four chords theory-compliant tune heavily evocative of songs like Engeyum Kaadhal, to take the most recent example. The tune works though, with Karthik doing the singing alongside Megha it is hard to ignore. Yellai Lama is also saved to an extent by the choice of vocalists – Vijay Prakash, Karthik, Shruti Hassan and Shalini. Nevertheless the tedium of the tune wins by the time you pass half the song. Even Roshan, Jerry, Benny and Suchitra don’t succeed in providing any such reprieve for Oh Ringa Ringa, just avoid it.

Disappointing soundtrack for the kind of hype surrounding 7aum Arivu. Wonder when Harris Jayaraj will get over the obsession with his thoroughly over-used templates.

Music Aloud Rating – 6.75/10

Top Recos – The Rise Of Damo, Innum Enna Thozha, Yamma Yamma

Listen to the soundtrack here (Link courtesy: @prabshoney).

Hitesh Sonik’s guest composition Tu is yet another classic testimony of how Sunidhi Chauhan has wasted herself with item numbers in the industry, she totally owns the song with her controlled singing, backed by an equally sedate arrangement from Hitesh. Lovely song! Barring that overwhelming Dil Hoom Hoom Kare memory that the opening line evokes, Intezaar is quite decently arranged by Shamir Tandon and Kavita Seth (though on seeing the name Kavita Seth I had expected something classical/sufi-based). Nice use of violin in the first interlude. Singer Nirmatee does a fine debut, and shows good promise. Enter lead composers, the reason I was looking forward to this soundtrack, Ajay-Atul.

So the Gogawale brothers start off with the boisterous Dhinchak Zindagi sung by Kunal Ganjawala, now a regular fixture in SLB flicks. Use of orchestra is commendable, especially the introduction of the mild East European flavour in the primarily bluesy carnival-esque template. And Kunal does a very energetic job on the rendition front also. Do Kabootar charms primarily for its employment of the harmonica. And again Kunal, he is a natural with such songs. But the best tracks from the duo happen to be the last two. The pop-ish Take It Easy where the composers use Kunal for a third time, joined by wife Gayatri Ganjawala for a minute-long but fabulously structured cameo towards the end. And the neatly arranged rock-flavored Yaadon Ki Album sung by KK.

Ajay Atul do another decent score, for My Friend Pinto, but “decent” is not what is expected of them. Especially not for a movie from Sanjay Leela Bhansali, a man who is supposed to be particular about his music. In fact Hitesh’s song might have better longevity than A-A’s. Hope they make amends come Agneepath.

Music Aloud Rating – 6.75/10

Top Recos – Tu, Take It Easy, Yaadon Ki Album

It was early last year that this Coca Cola ad featuring Kalki Koechlin and Imran Khan came on air, featuring a wonderfully reimagined version of Madan Mohan’s Tum Jo Mil Gaye Ho. And it happened again, towards the end of 2010 when another Coke ad came out, which featured a similar reinvention of RDB’s Aaj Ki Raat. While both ads gained massive popularity, a large part thanks to the music, but the man behind the music wasn’t fated to get limelight until Shaitan happened this year, bringing with it two more such reinventions – Hawa Hawai and the blockbuster hit Khoya Khoya Chaand. The obsession with classics was taken to the next level when the composer came out with an entire album of 10 such remixes called The Bartender. A must-listen, by the way. So here is Music Aloud’s interview of the composer – the multifaceted Mikey McCleary – where he says he is far from done with his work on classics. Read on.

A lot of people would think you are European. But you were born in India. Mind telling us a bit about your family background?

My father first came to India in 1957 and I was born in South India, spending the first 6 years of my life in Chennai and Bangalore. My schooling and University was in New Zealand and I then moved to London were I began my career in music composition and production.

When did you decide to take up music as a career? What inspired you?

I used to drive my parents crazy tapping out rhythms on the dining room table so they bought me a drum set at 13. I moved on to guitar and piano around 15 and started composing songs at 16. I was influenced by great songwriters like Bob Dylan, Bob Marley and Bill Withers. I always liked a mix of styles and appreciated well written songs from many different genres.

After completing music school, you had initially done some music production in London. What made you shift back to India?

India captures some people’s imaginations and I happen to be one of them. I had been thinking about living in India for many years before I finally decided to shift here. I wish I had come earlier.

Your first project in India was Lucky Ali’s Sunoh which was quite a hit. You have given music to a lot of ads and produced some fantastic music. Tell us more about your career.

I’ve been fortunate to be able to create music in many different styles. You never know when something is going to be successful. I wasn’t really aware of the success of ‘Sunoh’ while I was living in London. Getting into music for TV adverts has been great for my work ethic and musical mind. It’s perfect for a ‘jack of all trades master of none’ type composer like me.

The reason you are talk of the town today is “Khoya Khoya Chaand”. Tell us how you landed up with the job and about working with Prashant Pillai and Bejoy Nambiar.

I haven’t worked with Prashant, I’ve only met him once. Bejoy is a fantastic guy to work with, but I made Khoya Khoya Chand a year before Shaitan was made. Bejoy came over and listened to the songs from my album and he chose that song because it worked amazingly well with his gritty shootout sequence.

On to the album of the moment – The Bartender. Tell us about how you got the idea for such an ambitious project of reinventing 10 classics. Two of the songs are from your past works, one from the Coke ad. So were you working on this right when the ad happened, or did all that spur you on to this project?

The Coke ad with Imran and Kalki on the bus was my first reinvention of a Bollywood classic. Then I started listening to a lot of vintage Bollywood, in particular Geeta Dutt. My girlfriend encouraged me to make the album.

So how did you go about selecting the songs for the album?

Purely by listening, enjoying then playing around with chord progressions and grooves and bass lines. I chose songs that seduced me.

The inspiration behind choosing female voices for all songs, considering there are songs like Pukarta Chala Hoon Main which have male-specific lyrics?

Hearing females sing male songs can be refreshing, plus I think it makes the album sexier, at least for me.

Suman Sridhar is a terrific singer. And she seems to be your choice collaborator. Tell us more about your works with her. How did you first collaborate?

Our first song was that same Coke ad ‘Tum Jo Mil Gaye Ho’. We work well together. I often record her with a very basic track and then change all the music after. She has a very striking voice, totally unique.

What current and future projects apart from the album? Any complete Bollywood soundtracks in the pipeline?

The album launch and the upcoming live gig have kept me busy along with TV ad music most days, plus I am working on a new Bartender album.

Have you had international collabs too, or have you just focused on the Indian scene?

I’m working on the songs for my own international film script. Other than that, I’m happily focused on music in India for now.

 

Click on song title to listen to the song on youtube.

From its foreboding start G V Prakash Kumar manages to bolster Naan Sonnadhum to a fairly engaging track on the back of an imaginative techno-folk mix in the arrangement. Naresh Iyer and Saindhavi drawl their way through the song quite commendably, though it might probably have worked better with someone more crude-sounding. Saindhavi leaves no such room for doubt in the Pirai Thedum though, absolutely nailing the addictive track with ample support from GVP, both on vocals and orchestration. Ennenna Seidhom comes in a soothing retro-ish package (kalyani ragam, I am guessing) sung nicely by Harish Raghavendra. I confuse his voice with Balram’s many a times. And I don’t know if it’s just me, the song reminded of Amma Enrazhaikkatha from Mannan in places. Could be the raga and the feel.

Dhanush doesn’t come off as a guy who possesses much proficiency when it comes to singing, but he does a surprisingly decent job in Voda Voda, a song that quite goes with his general appearance. GVP is once again wonderful on the arrangement front, though he could have gone a bit easy on that reverb. There better be some reason in the video for that chipmunk voice, that is the only turn off in the audio. Equally entertaining is Kaadhal Yen Kaadhal where the composer gets director Selvaraghavan to join Dhanush behind the mic. Listening to the orchestration, the song could well have been from Aadukalam. And finally there is the breathtaking theme that sees a lovely interplay between the piano, flute and violins before switching to rock mode in the last minute.

G V Prakash Kumar continues his good form, dishing out another appealing soundtrack for Mayakkam Enna. Hope that this one at least does not find its way into itwofs!

Music Aloud Rating – 7.5/10

Top Recos – Pirai Thedum, Kaadhal Yen Kaadhal, Theme song

Click on the song title to listen to it on youtube (thanks much to @Ahana_C for the tipoff regarding youtube links).

Chengathir Kaiyum is vintage Ilayaraja – the captivating bass lines, the haunting tune seemingly based on one of his most frequently employed ragas in Malayalam, Keeravani. And with the flawless Chithra on vocals one couldn’t have asked for a better start to the soundtrack. Amruthamayi Abhayamai is also quite evocative of Raja’s previous Kalyani-based works, but a breezy orchestration and the majestic Hariharan are more than enough to make up for any déjà vu. In a second version Rahul Nambiar does a very nice crooning, but after hearing Hariharan any other cover would have to be exceptional to make an impact, no? Version 2 hence loses out to the original.

After quite a few lovely songs for Raja in other languages Shreya Ghoshal finally does a Malayalam debut for the composer in Snehaveedu with Aavani Thumbi (based on Savithri, @skrajiv guesses). Adding another track to her rapidly growing kitty of hit Malayalam songs! Beautiful orchestration from Raja, especially the killer second interlude. Rahul Nambiar might have been bested by Hariharan in his first song, but in the second attempt he produces a delectable semiclassical (Bahudari the raga for most part with an occasional stepping into Pravritti, thanks to @krishashok and @skrajiv for this info) duet called Chandrabimbathin with Swetha Mohan to close the soundtrack, once again the arrangement by the maestro spot on (though the westernization of the chorus portion struck as slightly odd), loved the use of percussion.

The Ilayaraja-Sathyan Anthikkad combo works. Yet again. Unsurprisingly.

Music Aloud Rating – 8/10

Top Recos – Just 4 tracks in any case.

Dheaon Dheaon, as its title might suggest, is one crazy package, lyrics-wise, singing-wise and arrangement-wise. At no point would the singers seem like Vishal Dadlani and Aditi Singh Sharma, they sound totally different. Their fitting rendition of the cheeky lyrics and the orchestration highlighted by the groovy South-ish percussion and the basslines form quite a potent combo, opening the soundtrack of Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge in style. Special respect to Raghu Dixit for the remix, titled The Seeti Seeti Bang Bang Remix, which actually has an arrangement better than the original, the perfectly placed seetis and the fantastic flute phrases. The love song Uh-Oh! Uh-Oh! is also presented in a characteristically different manner by the composer, amalgamating a variety of styles like acappella and Celtic music to good effect. And Ash King and Shilpa Rao do their job neatly. The remix, called Uh-Oh! Uh-Oh! 2.0, is also quite interestingly arranged.

Baatein Shuru once again sees a brilliant use of guitars (especially that bassline) in a very youthful tune, done total justice on the vocal front by Joi Barua and Shefali Alvarez. The only song from the soundtrack that sounds normal on a relative scale is the rock track Chhoo Le sung by Suraj Jagan. Entertaining listen, definitely, but the arrangement has a very heard-before feel to it. In fact the Big Bang Mix of the song has a more original sound, though heavy on techno. Raghu ends the soundtrack with one of his older compositions, Har Saans Mein, a song that impressed at that time, and still retains its charm.

Supremely engaging Bollywood debut from Raghu Dixit (discounting the one track for Quick Gun Murugun). I hope for his sake that Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge works as a movie as well.

Music Aloud Rating – 7.75/10

Top Recos – Baatein Shuru, Dheaon Dheaon, Uh-Oh! Uh-Oh!

You can listen to the soundtrack here.

Despite the presence of Akon Chammak Challo fails to inspire much excitement, due to a monotonous arrangement. Till the last 1:30 minutes happen that is. That is where Hamsika Iyer joins in with a Tamil twist in the tale. And goes on to outshine Akon with her cameo. The song impresses just as much in its other four (!) versions as well. The second song from Akon, Criminal, is imagined well by the composers though, letting the singer go his natural way while fusing the Indian elements into it quite nicely. Vishal’s Ishq Asar Kare refrain I quite liked. Shruti Pathak excels in the guest role, though I would have preferred her voice unprocessed. Dildaara sees Vishal-Shekhar use Ben E King’s Stand By Me (thanks much to @atulmathew for this piece of info) as a base to create a breezy classical-based piece sung by Shafqat Amanat Ali. Bhare Naina ups the ante much higher, V-S seamlessly switching from classical to rock to ambient to create a super track. Icing on the cake is the spotless rendition by Nandini Srikar. Siddharth Coutto’s Right By Your Side is a throwback to the duo’s youth movie soundtracks, but makes for a pleasant listen nevertheless.

If there is one thing Vishal-Shekhar have been consistent at right from day 1, it is in their tributes to RD Burman. Raftarein is another mindblowing testimony to that fact, where the composers smartly incorporate the hook from Piya Tu and the famous shout from Duniya Mein in a sinister, very Pancham-esque track. Vishal and Shekhar even mimic the composer on the vocal front to good effect. Jiya Mora has some splendid classical rendition by Sukhwinder Singh, but a cacophonous electronic hotchpotch of an arrangement kills it. Finally there are three instrumental tracks. Comes The Light has a reinvention of the Pancham template on an orchestral scale, and the effect is fab. Even more heroic in sound is I’m On which again borrows the Piya Tu loop for a brief while. The grandest of all though is the last one, Song of the End, a fabulously crafted melancholic piece that should make for a wonderful viewing in theatre.

Vishal Shekhar make up for Rascals and how! A definite winner, Ra.One’s soundtrack.

Music Aloud Rating – 8/10

Top Recos – Bhare Naina, Dildaara, Raftarein, Song of the End