Sikandar – Music Review

Sikandar is a suspense thriller starring Parzan Dastur, Ayesha Kapur, Madhavan and Sanjay Suri slated for release on March 27. The music composition has been divided among Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Justin-Uday and Sandesh Shandilya and lyrics also follow suit, being written by Prasoon Joshi, Neelesh Misra and Kumaar. Here is Music Aloud’s verdict on the album.

Dhoop Ka Sikka

Starting off on a nursery rhyme-ish note from Anusha Mani, this is a typical song from the Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy arsenal. It contains elements of rock music, classical music etc in it and does remind one of their older tunes in places. A pleasant and refreshing song nevertheless. Apart from Anusha Mani the song also has Shankar Mahadevan on the vocals, who adds to the beauty of the song by throwing in some of his sargam in the second interlude. Anusha Mani had earlier sung Lazy Lamhe in Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic for the same composers.

Gulon Mein

This song pays tribute to the eminent Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz. The lyrics are taken from an old Urdu poem written by him, which has been used in ghazals by legends like Mehdi Hassan and Runa Laila in the past. The composers Justin Yesudas and Uday Kumar have done a splendid job of adapting the ghazal song to create a totally new tune that is heard in the serene version of the song. These guys have got real talent, and I hope they make it big in Bollywood for their sake. If you want more instances of what this duo is capable of, I recommend to you Koi Na Jaane from Hijack. It was rather unfortunate that the song never got the credits that it should have. Coming back to this song however, the rendition style of Mohit Chauhan bears slight resemblance to his Tum Se Hi from Jab We Met.
While Justin-Uday create a soothing tune out of Gulon Mein, Sandesh Shandilya goes the other way to create a slightly peppier version of the same song, with a totally different tune. And he aptly chooses KK to lend voice to this song. Sandesh Shandilya is another unfortunate man who never really got his due in Bollywood in spite of some unforgettable tunes like Bhaage Re Mann in Chameli, Piya Basanti Re etc.

Aarzoo

This is a traditional song sung without any accompaniments by a boy named Mehrajuddin from Aru in Jammu & Kashmir.

Allah Hoo

A sufi song sung by Yash Narvekar and Hrishikesh Kamerkar, and composed by Justin-Uday again. The song starts off on an unimpressive note but gets better as it progresses. The singers have done a good job, but the chants of Allah Allah appearing intermittently in the background could have been tuned in a better manner. Barring that and the first stanza, the song is a good listen.

Mauzaraat

The starting stanza of this song reminded me a bit of Dhol Bajne Laga from Viraasat. Sung by Shilpa Rao, this song is the least impressive of the four songs from the composer duo in the album.

Chaal Apni

A beautiful song, the fourth from Justin-Uday and sung by Hamsika Iyer and Hrishikesh Kamerkar. Hamsika Iyer if you remember is the same singer who sang Chanda Re in Eklavya. The instrumentation of the song gives a folksy feel to it, and reminds one of songs like Koyal Si Teri Boli from Beta, except that this one has a more Southie touch to it.

To sum up, Sikandar gives the listener his money’s worth. With three out of their four songs turning out well, hopefully this will be the big break for Justin Yesudas and Uday Kumar who have the potential to gain a place among the top music directors of Bollywood.