Bheegi Si Bhaagi Si belongs to the Pritam line of romantic songs which once were very pleasing owing to their imaginative arrangement but are now getting very boring due to repeated usage. For all you know this song could well have been a Teri Ore or a Tera Hone Laga and it would have made little difference! Adding to the cliche factor is the “melody king” Mohit Chauhan. He is a good singer, but its really high time he shifted genres. Apart from the mild interest aroused by the very Shreya Ghoshal-esque Antara Mitra, there is nothing much else to this song. Thankfully we are spared of a remix for this one! Enter Aadesh Shrivastava with Mora Piya. Frankly I was quite surprised to see his name in the credits for this one when it appeared on the trailers. The subtle use of instruments, the haunting feel, are all so un-Aadesh (Is the raag Darbaar?)! Thats not to say the song is without its foibles (for instance, he could have gone slightly easy on the modern percussion in places, and the English chanting by Rosalie Nicholson), but it is definitely way ahead of the stuff he mostly offers in the name of songs. And Aadesh does a great job of delivering the song as well, backed splendidly by Shashi. As usual the subtlety is mostly lost in the remix versions, two in number. The Twilight Mix is the better of the two, having done away with the English part. Kavita Seth‘s singing is the high point of the Trance Mix which has little in common with the original apart from the base tune.
Composer No. 3 Shantnu Moitra next presents a folksy number, Ishq Barse. Being well-versed with the genre Moitra delivers an impressive score, sung well by Hamsika Iyer, Pronob Biswas and the lyricist Swanand Kirkire. Unfortunately owing to its functional nature the song doesn’t score high on the entertainment front. That said, Pronob’s classical ad-libbing in the interlude deserves a mention. DJ Lloyd and Discreet‘s effort do little to improve matters in the Bombay Bounce Club Mix. If anything, they only make matters worse, doing away with the folksy nature. With Vande Mataram‘s tune adorning the two extremes and a splendid orchestral score in between, Wayne Sharpe‘s Dhan Dhan Dharti is a beauty! Sharpe succeeds in bringing the anthem-like inspirational feel with the orchestration, the ambient background reminding one of another composer Sharpe considers his major inspiration, Vangelis. Shankar Mahadevan compliments Sharpe’s work well with a kickass job behind the microphone. If there is a Bollywood singer who can match Shankar at singing, it is Sonu Nigam, and Sharpe quite ideally brings Sonu to render the Reprise version (Call of the Soil) where nothing much changes except Sonu’s classicalized improvisations.
Despite the ill-advised usage of four different composers for four tunes, Prakash Jha pulls off a decent soundtrack for Raajneeti, thanks to lead composer Wayne Sharpe and, quite surprisingly, Aadesh Shrivastava.
Music Aloud Rating: 7/10
Recommended Tracks: Dhan Dhan Dharti, Mora Piya
Raajneeti – Music Review
