It is always a great challenge for a musician to make his debut with a classic song, which has in the past been covered by many great artists, and turn out a commendable job of it. And if that wasn’t challenging enough, consider a case where the musician himself does the instruments, modified lyrics and in the end launches the song on his own label. This “all-rounder” happens to be Dilpreet Bhatia, a Delhi-based folk-rock singer/songwriter, who recently came out with his debut single, a tribute to the great Nusrat Fateh Ali. Dilpreet is our spotlight artist for the week.

Let us start with a brief about you, your

musical background and so on.

I am based in Delhi, but spent most of my childhood in a small town of Fatehabad in Haryana, Started learning music from my teachers at school there. Performed in school and college fests but never thought that I would take music so seriously. Went to Bangalore for a Software Job and suddenly I started feeling that something is missing out here…I cant live without performing, without music. I came to Delhi and started learning Hindustani Classical from my Guruji Sumitra Guha and kept on trying and trying to do what I love to do, perform where ever I could and write whatever I felt….

Trying to cover a classic, especially by someone like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, is always a

high risk venture, with high chances of the song not going down well with purists, fans et

al. Nevertheless you chose to do just that (and did a beautiful job of it, we should add!).

So why Nusratji? And why this particular song?

I must say that I am honored, and thanks a lot for your kind words. I am a great fan of Nusrat Ji…his compositions are legendary. And the simple reason I chose this song was that ‘I loved it’ and I could relate to this song. I was not thinking of any risk when i was improvising it.  I hope you would have noticed that the antra of this song is not what Nusrat Ji have sung. What he has done, is legendary. And lot of artists like Kailash Kher, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and NFAK have sung this song before.  but extending it, writing new antras and giving them a whole tune…ya it may be scary but this is how I feel one with the song and I am honored that people liked this version and I hope that if he(Nusrat Ji) could listen to this song from up there, he wont scold me after hearing it…

At a time when most Punjabi songs tend towards the cacophonous orchestration, it is

refreshing to hear purely acoustic songs which bring out the real beauty of Punjabi Sufi

music. Was the arrangement entirely handled by you as well? And who is the pianist?

Ya, I did the music arrangement, recording and mixing for this song at my home studio, and all the intruments on this song, including piano, are played by me.

Today the easiest path to fame is quite evidently reality shows, and there have been many

who got their 15 minutes (and more) of fame through this. And considering you have good

talent as well, why did you not opt for that route?

I never thought its a good option for me.

This song has been launched via your own private label, Sur & Soul Records. Do you plan

to go big on the labels front, by trying to launch albums of other artists as well, or are you

going to employ Sur & Soul for your songs alone?

Sur ‘n’ Soul Records will not be limited to my songs alone, we have plan to launch other artists as well, mostly associated with hindustani classical. But it will remain an Indie Label.

Needless to say, launching a single costs a lot of money. Is music your sole bread-winner,

or are you employed otherwise?

I am also working as Lead Software Engineer for creative software giant Adobe Systems Inc.

You have come out with your first single now. When do you plan to launch a full album? And is that going to be all covers or are you working on some own comps as well?

The full album is already ready, Its in Punjabi, and songs have been written, composed and sung by me and directed by Leslie Lewis of Colonial Cousins. I have also collaborated with 6 times Grammy Winning Mixing Engineer Ken Lewis for one of songs in this Album. We are right now showcasing it to labels and hopefully it should be out very very soon.

The staple musician question – who are your influences?

Ghulam Ali, Nusrat Ji, Pt Jasraj, U2, A R Rahman and my Guruji Sumitra Guha, have had the greatest influence on me and my music.

A lot of Indian musicians are currently collaborating with international musicians with

great success. Have you explored that possibility?

Yes, I have recently completed recording a song for UK based producer Shammi Pithia, Did one song with Ken Lewis, which is featured in my upcoming album, and currently working on a multiple song project with Canadian band Nawticks.

Next pitstop would be Bollywood we are guessing. Anything on that front yet?

Nothing on that front right now, this Single and Album have been keeping me busy for now, but ya, I am surely gonna give it a shot.
We wish you all the best, and hope your debut album happens soon indeed.
Another spotlight artist coming up your way soon!

The name Amartya Rahut might not ring a bell in most minds. But I doubt there is a person who wouldn’t have heard at least one of his many works on TV, which range from the jingle for Cadbury’s Perk to Colors Channel Signature Tune to his award-winning Punjabicized version of Jingle Bells created for Nickelodeon. His religious views, as per facebook, is “John Lennon is God”. That gives a general idea of how committed this guitarist-composer is to music.

Amartya’s first shot to fame was his fusion band in early 2000s, OM, which he formed with the now-famous Amit Trivedi and three other guys. He did his Bollywood debut last year with Aagey Se Right, but it unfortunately didn’t attain success in spite of being a good album. The man is currently busy with the works of his new band Nine which debuted at the Kala Ghoda Festival on Feb 12. We decided to catch up with Amartya aka Bobo and get his story for our readers. Read on then!

Let us start with your pre-OM days. Your

musical upbringing et al.

I have been a professional freelance guitar player from my school days in Calcutta… Have played with some of the premium bands of that time… Namely Shiva, Fifth Dimension, Asteroids, Cactus, Paras Pathar….

But personally I have always wanted to compose original songs and ideally wanted to do it on a national platform and not be restricted to any regional space… So shifted base to Mumbai in 2000.

In Mumbai started off with whatever little work I would get initially in advertising… And the struggle which I guess every migrant in Mumbai faces in our industry….

How did OM come about? The five of you are seemingly people from different

backgrounds, both geographically and musically.

During my initial advertising days in Mumbai I started working with Amit Trivedi (Dev D/Aamir)… He used to be my arranger for all my advertising sessions… His friends were Sriram and Ram…and one fine day we got together and created Om… We were pretty lucky I must say to get times music to spend on our album pretty much as soon as we had started the band…

I have read you as being credited as composer for OM in many places. Just want to clarify

whether it was entirely your effort, coz in at least a couple of songs (Baadal and Tum Tana

especially) I have got an improv sort of feel.

My part in Om was being the composer and guitar player for the band… Sriram composed a few tracks on his own… Amit arranged all the songs and Baadal was a traditional piece which we jammed on…

Om was formed in 2002. I believe you came out with the album some time in 2004. And

after such a brilliant debut nothing was heard of Om again. What happened? Is there a

possibility of a reunion in future?

Unfortunately, after the album released, although we did get decent response, our personal goals seemed to be pretty individualistic…as for myself I was already composing on a regular level for premium mainstream advertising commercials, Amit the other key member of Om was working with me… Ram and Sriram had full time corporate jobs… So it fell apart… And now it seems pretty unlikely that there will be a reunion…

Coming back to your individual exploits, after your stint with Om you were lying low, at

least to the public eye, till Aagey Se Right came about in late 2009. What were you doing in

this long hiatus?

After Om, I scored the music for for 2 Marathi films for a friend of mine , director Bipin Nadkarni… The National award winning Uttarayan and Evdhasa Aabhal… I got the State award, Zee Alfa award, and the V Shantaram Puraskar for the above films…

Along with all this my advertising stint continued on a regular level… Personally I love composing for ads… As the time frame is limited, the money being good… And the job, very challenging… One needs to be on his toes everyday to score advertising music…

Along with advertising I do a lot of television work as well… The channel signature tunes of Colors and Real have been composed by me. Last year, ‘KHATRON KE KHILADI”, “CHOTE MIYAN”, “BIG BOSS” AND “NATIONAL BINGO”etc…

In 2009 I did Aagey Se Right… Again for a friend of mine from my advertising background, Indrajit Nattoji… I still wish the music had been promoted a little… There was almost zero publicity as far as the music of the film was concerned…

What other Bollywood projects have you got coming up?

Currently, working on a couple of film projects …but no point in naming them now…as I have realized one simple thing as far as feature films are concerned…till they release one never knows what the outcome is going to be…because it is a big affair and I guess there are lots of variables attached to a film…so, being a little superstitious about it (hehe)..

Congratulations on your debuting your new band Nine at the Kala Ghoda festival. Tell us

more about the band. When is Nine’s official album going to hit the shelves?

Currently I am occupied working on the band Nine with two extremely talented and dear friends, Neelesh Mishra and Shilpa Rao… Nine was completely Neelesh’s idea…I am simply composing the songs and creating the music to his thoughts….. And things are shaping up well… Hopefully this year the album should release…

To be parting on a light note, mind telling us the history behind your famous nickname

Bobo?

As far as Bobo is concerned…a very strange uncle of mine (this is the story passed on to me by my dad), had this brilliant idea of naming me Bobo when I was a baby…and its stuck till date (hahaha)…

Whoever I meet for the first time, I introduce myself as Amartya…by our third meeting he starts calling me Bobo…so that’s a comic tragic affair I have to live with I guess!!!

Well here is wishing Amartya all success with his upcoming Bollywood ventures, and Nine. As an ardent fan of OM I do sincerely hope that a reunion of OM happens in spite of Bobo’s misgivings! We shall be back with another artist soon. Below are some videos of Amartya’s past works.

Piya by OM, reproduced with the artist’s permission

Amartya’s rehash of Jingle Bells for Nickelodeon which won the Promax 2009 award for best music

A Condom awareness ad with music composed by Amartya

It was some time towards the fag end of 18th century that William Blake wrote the book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. A line from this poem – “If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite” – inspired the author Aldous Huxley to name his 1954 book describing mescaline experiences, The Doors of Perception. Later when Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore decided to form a rock band in 1965, they called themselves The Doors borrowing from the book’s title. And in 1966-67, as part of the band’s self-titled debut album, was born this now classic number called Light My Fire. Ranked #35 on Rolling Stone’s list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and #7 on VH1’s 100 Greatest of All Time, this was the song that catapulted The Doors from an underground band known in the LA area into a worldwide phenomenon.
With a chord progression inspired by John Coltrane’s landmark version of Rodger-Hammerstein’s My Favorite Things from Sound of Music (Manzarek and Densmore were heavily into jazz at that time), Light My Fire had a major part written by Krieger who wanted to write about one of the elements. Rest of the band then expanded upon this, Morrison writing some of the second verse and Manzarek coming up with the organ intro. It is said that when the 1991 movie on The Doors was being made Krieger insisted that the scene showing the band rehearsing Light My Fire make clear that it was him not Morrison who composed the song.
Controversies were something that followed Morrison till his untimely death in 1971, at the age of 27 (in fact even post his death, as with his estate which he bequeathed to his girl friend Pamela Courson). Even Light My Fire had its share of tussles, the first one involving Ed Sullivan. When the band was to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show in September 1967, the producers of the show asked the band to change the line “Girl we couldn’t get much higher” due to the obvious reference to drug ingestion. After agreeing upon changing it, Morrison went ahead and sang the same lyrics on the show. Quite understandably, Ed Sullivan wasn’t really happy and never called the band again on the show. Not that the band cared anyways, Morrison’s famous reply while informed of this being something along the lines of “Who cares? We just did the Ed Sullivan show!” The second instance involves Buick. In 1967 Buick offered The Doors $75,000 to use Light My Fire to advertise their latest offering, the Opel. Morrison was out of town and the other three agreed to the offer. But when Morrison got back he was totally against the deal and threatened Buick to smash an Opel on television with a sledgehammer if they aired the ad!
A lot of artists have covered Light My Fire over the years. The most successful version to date has been Jose Feliciano’s Latinised one which came out in 1968. Employing the classical and flamenco elements to splendid effect, the song went on to win Jose Feliciano two Grammy awards the following year, and was used as a base arrangement in many subsequent covers. Another brilliant variant came in Stevie Wonder’s soul music for his 1969 album My Cherie Amour. And a third one, my favourite, is Ananda Shankar’s sitar-based cover, which was released as part of his debut self titled album in 1970. Though we have restricted ourselves to speaking about just these three cover versions, there have been a lot of other successful covers in varied genres.
Below is an audio clip on the story of the song, straight from the horses’ mouths (just in case the embedded player doesn’t load, you can listen to the clip here.Make sure you don’t miss it; it is a wonderful audio), and videos of a few songs mentioned above. I couldn’t find a video of Ananda Shankar’s version anywhere. So you can listen to a small snippet of that here and buy it too, if you are interested. So long!

The story of Light My Fire

John Coltrane’s My Favorite Things, which inspired the chords.

Passage is Shekhar Kapur’s first short film produced by Swarowski Entertainment, having four out of its five tracks composed by A R Rahman. With minimal dialogues, music holds paramount importance in this 20 odd minute film. Just the kind of film a music fan, more importantly a Rahman fan, would look for. The review.

In the first track, Opening, Rahman dishes out an incredibly haunting tune employing just a piano and a sarangi for most parts. I think the raga is Charukesi but I am not quite sure about that. The melancholy is very well captured in a quiet way, something Rahman has previously done in movies like Water to good effect. Next piece, a tango by the name Ostinato, is the only track not done by Rahman. This instead has been composed by young Spanish pianist/composer Carla Pugliese. The piece, while wonderfully employing the accordion and the fiddle, also departs from the traditional with slight electronic elements in the background. Rahman returns with Atmosphere, whose initial half is again a sequence from Opening. Then it sees a shift to what is signified by the name, a very grand orchestral arrangement. Such ambient compositions from Rahman have always been quite a privilege to listen to, and he carries off this too in style. Fourth track is a French Aria, the only piece involving vocals. For the first few seconds it seems to be a pretty ordinary score, and then the orchestra kicks in. And then it turns into another majestic piece, more imposing than the previous one partly due to the more grandiose usage of instruments. The singer is apparently a student of Rahman’s KMMC named Kavita Baliga and she has done a brilliant job in this song. The soundtrack ends with a Waltz, again characterized by its orchestral extravagance.
There are soundtracks like Blue, and then there are soundtracks such as Passage. It is in the latter category that the class of Rahman truly comes out. Of course there are also many cases where Rahman blends class into the commercial but Passage doesn’t fall there. This is obviously not going to go well with the masses, and in all probability the only people hearing this wonderful album would be the most hardcore of Rahman fans and people at various film festivals where this film gets played, which is rather unfortunate. For me, nevertheless, this is Rahman’s best album post his Oscar win, at least for the time-being. You can listen to the album here.

PS: For best results, listen to the soundtrack as part of the film itself. Shekhar Kapur has done an excellent work of the film, doing absolute justice to Rahman’s compositions. You can watch the film here.

Wake Up Sid starts off frighteningly like the typical feel-good-but-now-getting-jaded SEL-KJo fare before it takes a Rock On-ish turn in the title line. And then on its a nice 3 odd minutes coming out in the ever-dependable Shankar Mahadevan’s voice. The remix version however went a bit too fast for my liking. Next up is some country styled music with Kya Karoon, Clinton Cerejo absolutely magnificent on the vocals, in places reminding me of Raman Mahadevan. Another pleasant track, though it does bear mild resemblances to Yeh Aaj Kya Ho Gaya from Luck By Chance. The instrument in the interlude didnt sound like an actual harmonica by the way. Aaj Hi Zindagi is another nicely arranged serene track, Shankar getting to mildly exercise his classical side on the vocals. He especially sounds resplendent on the higher notes. For that matter Shankar Mahadevan always excels when it comes to soaring vocals!! Enter guest composer Amit Trivedi who pulls off a blinder with his sole composition for the movie called Iktara. Rendered superbly by Sufi singer Kavita Seth and lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya, this one expertly packages Kavita’s classical rendition in a modern setting, the highlight being the guitars. If the name Kavita Seth doesn’t ring a bell, advise you to please listen to the absolutely haunting number from Gangster called Mujhe Mat Roko. Amitabh Bhattacharya is bound have more recall, having penned the lyrics of 99 and more importantly, Dev D. SEL return for the last track which is another delightful composition a la Rock On. This one sees alongside Shankar Mahadevan the veteran rock singer Uday Benegal. He was last seen with Alms For Shanti, a band he founded with his guitarist from Indus Creed days, Jayesh Gandhi (who incidentally is into movies himself, having sung for many movies and scored for movies like Manorama Six Feet Under). Hopefully this is a start and we will get to hear more of Uday. By the way you can know more about and listen to some excellent music from Alms For Shanti here.
Its refreshing to see SEL take a diversion from their usual route when it comes to movies from the Karan Johar household. And Amit Trivedi, come out with your next full soundtrack soon please!!

On our 63rd Independence Day, we decided to pay a musical tribute by putting down our list of the ten best patriotic songs of all time, both film and non-film music.  This list comprises of we felt were the best. Your opinions would vary, you may feel we have missed out some prominent song, so comments are most welcome! Here are the ten songs in their chronological order (to safely avoid the daunting task of deciding the best among these ten!!)

Vande Mataram – Anand Math (1952)
The film version of the 1882 novel by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay which incidentally featured the national song for the first time. Though many versions of the song have hence appeared (the most popularly used one being the one set in Desh Raag), this tune by Hemant Kumar effectively captures the environment when the song was written, the strife, the struggle, the patriotic fervour et al. And who better to render the song than Lata Mangeshkar!!

Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon (1963)
Kavi Pradeep has done a lot of patriotic songs in his lifetime but this shall invariably be his best remembered one. Add to that C Ramachandra’s arrangement and Lata Mangeshkar’s magical voice, and what you get is a song that will give you a lump in your throat just about every time you listen to it. If this song doesn’t make you stand up and salute our brave soldiers, nothing else ever will!!

Kar Chale Hum Fida – Haqeeqat (1964)
Again a tribute to the Indian soldiers set in the background of the Sino-Indian war, this one had another prolific set of artists in Mohammad Rafi, Madan Mohan and Kaifi Azmi. Though not as effective as Aye Mere Watan, Rafi’s singing and the picturization of the song are more than enough to qualify Kar Chale into our top ten.

Mile Sur Mera Tumhara (1988)
A gem of a tune set to raag Sindhu Bhairavi by Louis Banks(or is it Ashok Patki?) and written by Azgar Khan. This song enters the list not only for the quality of the song but also the nostalgic feeling it brings with it, the good old days of DD! The idea of national integration by bringing in artists and featuring music from all parts of the country was intriguing, as well as endearing.

Bharat Humko – Roja (1992)
Roja was a landmark movie in Indian music history just by it marking the entry of AR Rahman. All songs in the movie were memorable and Bharat Humko was especially so due to its difference in orchestration. The transition from the soft crooning by Hariharan with sparse instrumental backing to the heavily orchestrated chorus part is one hair-raising experience, even today!

Vande Mataram – Saza-e-Kala Pani (1996)
The lyrics different from the actual Vande Mataram this song was set to tune by Ilayaraja in his trademark style. This song too employs the orchestral chorus effect to convey the heroism and the environment of struggle. And if you encounter this song as part of watching the movie, the effect is bound to be quite overwhelming.

Revival – Vande Mataram (1997)
While a lot of hubbub was raised over Maa Tujhe Salaam, not many people at that time noticed this superb version of the national song in the same album. Even today I doubt if all people who have heard of Maa Tujhe Salaam would have listened to Missing. Arranged in a way that only Rahman can, the sax&guitar-laden interludes are just mindblowing! And the female voices (I have only so far managed to identify Anuradha Sriram) do a perfect job of delivering it. My hunch is that the percussion heard in the second interlude doesnt actually come from a percussion instrument, rather some sort of a guitar.

Zindagi Maut Na Ban Jaaye – Sarfarosh (1999)
I truly consider this soul-stirring song the greatest contribution of Jatin-Lalit to Bollywood! The arrangement is brilliant, and Sonu Nigam and Roop Kumar Rathod spot on in their singing.

Jana Gana Mana (2000)
Following up to Vande Mataram again as a venture with BharatBala, this album featured renditions of the National anthem by over 35 different artists from all over India, both instrumentalists and vocalists. While each of the versions featured in this album are brilliant in their own right, to be fair to everyone I am providing here the video merging the collective instrumental and the collective vocal versions.

Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna – The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2002)
It not that we haven’t noticed that this is the fourth Rahman song in this ten-song list. Its just that the man has given us so much over these 17-odd years that it is impossible not to find a handful of brilliant compositions in almost every genre! Coming back to this song, a slow classical-oriented melody with minimal instrumentation, the song was sung by the dream duo of Hariharan and Sonu. The video we provide however has Sonu doing a solo.

We wish all our readers a very happy Independence Day.

Director: Vishal Bharadwaj
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala
Music Director: Vishal Bharadwaj
Lyricist: Gulzar
Label: T-Series
Read the rest of this entry »

Came across this compilation of David Garrett’s 2008 album Encore while I was looking for his recently oft discussed violin cover of MJ’s Smooth Criminal. And what a good find it turned out to be. While this 16-track album features covers of songs ranging from Smooth Criminal to AC/DC’s Thunderstruck to Queen’s Who Wants To Live Forever?, David also plays some popular western classicals like Vivaldi’s Summer (Four Seasons), Brahms’ Hungarian Dance #5 etc. David Garrett, for the uninitiated, is the 2010 Guinness Book official entry for the fastest violinist in the world. That must be more than enough of an intro I guess!! Enjoy the album.

Smooth Criminal (Incidentally I found a better violin cover of Smooth Criminal played by Alex Depue which can be seen in the second half of this video. Staccato is just awesome for the song!)

Who Wants to Live Forever?

Clair Du Lune

He’s a Pirate

Summertime

Hungarian Dance No.5

Chelsea Girl

Summer

O Mio Babbino Caro

Air

Thunderstruck

New Day

Ain’t No Sunshine

Rock Prelude

Winter Lullaby

Zorba’s Dance

Anu Malik is totally out of gas, as is evident from his flicks of late. And he continues his (lack of) form in Teree Sang. His first song, Chal Mera Haath, is replete with stereotyped beats and a dull tune. His daughter Anmol Malik is decent on the vocals though. His next song is an even more unimpressive Lal Quile, where he attempts a rap akin to Ashok Kumar’s Rail Gaadi from Aashirwad. Even Anmol and Shaan’s singing do little to capture your interest. The best that can be said about the two numbers from Anu Malik is that they would sound way better when you listen to Bappi Lahiri’s Miss Baabloo!! Rendered by the man himself, this song is totally mindless and annoying. For that matter I have been annoyed with Bappida eversince he made that ridiculous claim about Jai Ho being inspired from his Ramba Ho. Coming back to the album however, Bappida does a surprise rebound next with Tere Bin. A song slightly reminiscent of Kailasa’s Teri Deewani in its progression, Raja Hasan and Sumedha Karmahe splendid on the vocals (Darbar I guess the raag is). Sumedha, by the way, was a finalist on SaReGaMaPa 07. Wonder where she was all this while. The debutant composer duo Sachin-Jigar make their entry with the pop style I will be there for you sung by Dominique and Clinton Cerejo. Next up is Leja Leja, a soft melody well arranged and rendered wonderfully by another debutante, Jahnvi Shrimankar and Salim (Shehzada I guess, from the voice). Maula Mila De, their next song, is a very engaging Sufi rock number sung to good effect by Suhail. Following up on the same mood, the duo belt out a second sufi rock song, Morey Saiyan, this time getting behind the mike themselves. And this one is even better than the previous one. The first interlude is totally engrossing with the classicalized guitar sequence (I have my doubts that it is Niladri Kumar on electric Sitar, as he did in Alvida from Metro). The duo sign off the album with a milder and folksy Rab Milya, coming out in Jigar’s voice. While Jigar has done a good job of the singing, Sachin and Jigar once again prove their astuteness with the orchestration.
Sachin-Jigar totally steal the thunder with their five songs in Teree Sang. Bappi Lahiri does a schizophrenic act, giving one totally crappy track and another very enjoyable number. And as for Anu Malik, consistency is the word! And hey, a soundtrack devoid of any remix!!

Since I got hold of this album late and happened to read two excellent reviews already written, I was initially thinking of not writing a review of Kaminey. But I am now so hooked to it that I decided to pen down my thoughts anyways. The best song of the lot is indeed the roller-coaster ride that is Dhan Te Nan!! The gangster-like motif on the line Dhan Te Nan and the recently oft-used surf guitaring (Pump It, Cash) complemented wonderfully by Sukhwinder’s and Vishal Dadlani’s power-packed singing. Whatte song!! The hip-hoppish remix with Bob Omulo’s rap has been nicely done as well, but I really couldn’t see a requirement for that after the brilliant original version. Coming to Pehli Baar, when you see Mohit Chauhan in the credits section the expectations from the song are set. This song is no different either, no negatives intended. Pehli Baar is a brilliant composition, Mohit living upto his reputation in delivering such breezy melodies. But I feel if he goes on like this people might start getting fed up. There was a time when Lucky Ali used to be similarly typefied, his voice reminding of associated Caribbean-style beats et al. I thought the success of ARR’s Masakalli would have led MDs to give him faster numbers but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Coming back to the review however, next up is the title track. When you have a title like Kaminey, you would expect a violent abusive sort of song. But Vishal totally takes you by surprise here, dishing out a soft number that would hardly have you thinking of the title as an abuse. The instrumentation has been superb, especially the orchestral second interlude. The violin segment just blew me away!! And splendid singing by Vishal Bharadwaj. Kailash Kher and Sukhwinder Singh render the folksy Fatak to perfection. But the song reminded me of his older songs like Omkara. The whipping sound accompanying the word Fatak is nice. The singer I was waiting for, Rekha Bharadwaj, enters in Raat Ke Dhaai Baje, an item number I presume. As always, its sheer delight to hear sing, with excellent support given by Sunidhi Chauhan. I was surprised to hear Suresh Wadkar in this song given the genre. But he does his part very well in his own unique way. Vishal also slows things down a bit in the middle for Suresh. Other vocalists joining in are Kunal Ganjawala and Earl. Again I found the remix a redundancy. Go Charlie Go, the instrumental theme of the movie, is a reprise of Dhan Te Nan, albeit with more retro whodunit sort of music, heavy beats et al. A fitting end to the soundtrack. Vishal Bharadwaj continues to surprise with his diversity. And I am not complaining!!