David – Music Review (Hindi/Tamil Movie Soundtrack)

David movie posterYou can listen to the Tamil soundtrack here and Hindi here.

Listening to the songs common to both Hindi and Tamil versions of David, one gets a feeling that the songs were actually done in Tamil and then the Hindi lyrics written – felt a misfit on more than one occasions. One instance where both instances work to almost the same level though is the Theme of David, with Bramfatura’s electronica-led sound and brilliant singing from Siddharth Basrur of Goddess Gagged. Folk fusion band Maatibaani’s Tore Matwaare Naina with JoyShanti appears as is in Hindi and as Theeradhu Poga in Tamil. The fusion had impressed when it first came out, and it still does big time. Composer no. 3 Anirudh Ravichander’s Kanave Kanave/Yun Hi Re has a very heard-before tune, but that is more than made up by a fabulously layered arrangement that sees some beautiful usage of strings and flute. While the Tamil version has Anirudh handling the singing too, in Hindi it is Shwetha Mohan in the lead. Of Remo Fernandes’s two songs, Maria Pitache is a rehash of his own old song with an infusion of Hindi/Tamil lyrics. The composer is joined by Abhijeet Deshpande and Vikram in the respective versions. The other one, called The Light House Symphony starts off with a tranquil guitar-led arrangement before it slowly builds up pace and layers, most of prominent of which is Remo’s own spirited scatting. Modern Mafia’s Machi/Bandhay’s heady mix of rock-based arrangement and the rapping (done by the band themselves in Hindi and Sanjeev Thomas in Tamil) works quite neatly, especially since they keep it adequately short. That La La loop is particularly impressive.

One of the stars of Bejoy Nambiar’s previous movie, Prashant Pillai, gets just two original songs here. Though those two are enough for the man to blow you away. Prashant starts off with an unconventionally conventional melody executed beautifully by Naresh Iyer and Shweta Pandit in both versions – Iruvanil Ulavavaa and Tere Mere Pyaar Ki. Though ‘conventional’ on a relative scale, the arrangement is replete with interesting elements right from the finger-snapping that kicks off the song. Tao Issaro is the man to watch out for in Rab DI/Maname , as he overshadows Karthik’s impeccable singing with his mindblowing percussion skills. And Dub Sharma does an equally neat job with the Dub Step version. And with that end the songs that appear in the Tamil version. The rock adaptation of the (Marathi?) folk rhythm is the only repeat-worthy part of the otherwise noisy affair that is Aaron Carvalho and Saurabh Roy‘s Three Kills. While Prashant does just two songs here, another composer from Shaitaan, Mikey McCleary gets a promotion to lead composer. But unlike his re-imagination of classics in that movie and in his album Bartender, Dama Dam Mast Kalandar doesn’t really impress. The arrangement does not offer anything particularly new, and though Rekha Bhardwaj is a brilliant singer she sounds bland here compared to other legends who have rendered this song. Having heard that distortion hook in the teaser I was looking forward to Gaurav Godkhindi’s rock version of the song, but unfortunately that hook is restricted to a short cameo in the second interlude; rest of the rock arrangement sounds largely discordant. While the sufi Ya Hussain is of situational quality, what is interesting is the way Lucky Ali has been utilized, very different from how he generally sings (ok apparently this song is from Prashant and not Mikey, my bad. Thanks Manish for pointing it out). Mikey’s song of the soundtrack is Out Of Control that works quite nicely in both its versions – the first one mainly for the brilliant singing by Nikhil D’Souza and Preeti Pillai and the latter for the soothing interplay between the piano and the choir.

The Hindi score may not impress as much as Tamil, but there is no doubting Bejoy Nambiar’s exquisite sense of music. To do that with as many as nine different composers is quite a feat! Respect.

Music Aloud Rating: 8/10

Top Recos: Maname, Tere Mere Pyaar Ki, Kanave, Out of Control, Tore Matwaare Naina

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Vipin says:

@manish: corrected. thanks a lot!

manish says:

The track Ya Husain Is Prashant Pillai’s track (confirmed as in other reviews), you need to correct that. Needless to say, good writing. and David Rocks!