Songs and musician credits at the end.
Rajiv Bhalla, a name I last saw in Onir’s 2011 anthology film I Am (where he composed that beauty sung by KK called Bojhal Se) composes the title song of My Birthday Song (incidentally co-produced by the movie’s leading man Sanjay Suri, who also co-produced I Am). Bhalla himself handles the vocals and live guitars for the brooding piece, and does a fab job on all fronts. Singer-composer Joi Barua and guitarist Pawan Rasaily (who plays guitars for all the remaining songs, and has also done the background score for the movie) create the sensual Rain, dividing the key roles between themselves – Barua handles the English lyrics and the singing, while Rasaily plays guitars that dominate the laidback arrangement. Once again, good show by both the musicians; the only issue is that the song lasts just over two minutes.
Barua handles vocal duty for one more song in the album, but for the movie’s third set of music directors – Nitin Krishna Menon and Ajay Govind (also lyricist for the three songs they have composed). Bhaag does not have a great melody, but the guitar-led arrangement (handled by Rasaily again) manages to convey the intrigue the song aims at, albeit mildly evocative of Aao Na from Haider. Menon-Govind do a better job in the other two songs, both sung by Mohan Kannan. Ajnabi’s melodic progression at times reminded me of the opening verse of Jiyein Kyun from Dum Maaro Dum, but the simplicity of the song and arrangement (once again guitar dominating the soundscape, with really nice solos by Pawan Rasaily in the interludes) makes the song work, as does Mohan Kannan’s soulful rendition. Ghayal is a more intense piece that once again has Kannan and Rasaily leading the pack, with an interestingly long interlude that lasts nearly two minutes.
My Birthday Song. A decent soundtrack that maintains a consistently engaging sound (a dominantly indie-inclined one at that) despite the involvement of multiple composers, each of whom deserves to be heard more. And yet, the Youtube jukebox has 828 views, while atrocities like Judwaa 2 clock up millions. (Confession: I myself am guilty of being unaware of the album until yesterday; thanks to @shiivz for pointing me in its direction).
Music Aloud Rating: 3/5
Top Recos: Ghayal, My Birthday Song, Rain
Musician Credits
MY BIRTHDAY SONG
Singer & Composer Raajeev V Bhalla
Lyricist Akshay K Saxena
Music production & all live guitars Raajeev V Bhalla
Mixed by Jarvis Marcedo at Shankh Studios (Mumbai)
AJNABI
Composers Ajay Govind & Nitin Krishna Menon
Singer Mohan Kannan
Lyricist Ajay Govind
Music Arrangement Ajay Govind and Nitin Krishna Menon
Music production and Guitars Pawan Rasaily
Mixing & Mastering Eric Pillai
Dubbing Geet Audio Craft Studio (Mumbai)
Dubbing engineers Abani Tanti and Pankaj Kaushik
Special Thanks Niharika Ghai (SoundBound Productions, New Delhi)
GHAYAL
Composers Ajay Govind & Nitin Krishna Menon
Singer Mohan Kannan
Lyricist Ajay Govind
Music Arrangement Ajay Govind and Nitin Krishna Menon
Music production and Guitars Pawan Rasaily & Mark Aranha
Mixing & Mastering Eric Pillai
Dubbing Geet Audio Craft Studio (Mumbai)
Dubbing engineers Abani Tanti and Pankaj Kaushik
Special Thanks Niharika Ghai (SoundBound Productions, New Delhi)
BHAAG
Composers Ajay Govind & Nitin Krishna Menon
Singer Joi Barua
Lyricist Ajay Govind
Music production and Guitars Pawan Rasaily
Music Arrangement Pawan Rasaily
Mixing & Mastering Eric Pillai
Dubbing Geet Audio Craft Studio (Mumbai)
Dubbing engineers Abani Tanti and Pankaj Kaushik
Special Thanks Niharika Ghai (SoundBound Productions, New Delhi)
RAIN
Composer Pawan Rasaily & Joi Barua
Singer Joi Barua
Lyricist Joi Barua
Music production and Guitars Pawan Rasaily
Mixing & Mastering Abani Tanti
Dubbing Geet Audio Craft Studio (Mumbai)
Dubbing engineers Abani Tanti and Pankaj Kaushik
BACKGROUND SCORE
Pawan Rasaily
