Songs and musician credits at the end.
Since Falaknuma Das is a remake of the brilliant Angamaly Diaries, excuse me while I draw a brief comparison of Vivek Sagar’s work here with Prashant Pillai’s work in the original, at the outset. One of the standout aspects of Angamaly Diaries’ soundtrack was the organic feel that most of the songs carried – given that they were largely traditional folk songs from the region presented in their raw, street format. On the other hand, Falaknuma Das’s soundtrack, while again dominated by quirky folk-flavoured tracks, carries a more polished, more filmi sound overall. This is not to take away from the songs’ entertainment value of course, Vivek’s arrangement here is a rich tapestry of folk sounds. And my current favourite among the folk tracks is Paye Paye, sung by Rahul Sipligunj and Shiva Nagulu – an incredibly addictive kuthu flavoured piece that expectedly rides on a heavy percussion base (Anil Robin and Ganesh) and top notch delivery from the singers. Jassie Gift leads Falaknuma Mama (interesting that Falaknuma rhymes with Mama – I expected “numa” to rhyme with Uma”) with a fine chorus backing him up – an apparent drinking song that in its boisterousness, vocal arrangements etc sort of takes me back to another fairly recent composition in the same genre, Tasakku Tasakku from Vikram Vedha. Fun song, all said and done.; generous use of Hindi/Urdu words which I assume has to do with the movie’s Hyderabad setting.
Telugu music’s (pretty much all of South India’s in fact) current golden boy Sid Sriram gets another love song to add to his kitty with Arerey Manasa, albeit a melancholic one. And I love his singing for most part here, except for the title hook which sounds a tad too predictable (and is it just me or does he sound a bit off at that point?). Neat job by Vivek on the instrumentation, especially with the two contrasting interludes – Indian classical-flavoured in the first led by Yakub Ali’s harmonium, while going Western with some well-imagined harmonies on flute (Pramod Umapathi) and violin (Abhijeet Gurjale). Aslam Khan’s sarangi too finds good use throughout the song. Kailash Kher is the lead singer for the final two songs of the album. Dasu Bindasu is a delightful listen, much like the other folk tracks of the album except with a more European-inspired sound. Also thanks to this song, I got to know of this ukulele-bass hybrid instrument called U-Bass (played by Varun Venugopal here). While it isn’t as obvious in Dasu Bindasu, possibly owing to the busy soundscape and the backing vocals by Balaji Dake, Kailash Kher’s voice sounds jaded in Tum Miley Ho and that considerably brings down the appeal of what is otherwise a well-composed and arranged song. The song, written entirely in Hindi, lasts just over two and a half minutes, the shortest of the album.
Despite what I mentioned at the start of the review, Falaknuma Das’s soundtrack does, without a doubt, pack quite a punch! Having wanted to review a Vivek Sagar soundtrack for a while now, this is the first one that I actually managed at long last, and I look forward to more.
Music Aloud Rating: 3.5/5
Top Recos: Paye Paye, Dasu Bindasu, Arerey Manasa
Musician Credits
Falaknuma Mama
Music Composed and Arranged by Vivek Sagar
Lyrics by Kittu Vissapragada
Vocals by Jassie Gift
Chorus by Vinayak ,Krishna Tejasvi,Naresh Mamindla,Srinivas and Anurag Kulkarni
Mandolin , Banjo and Oud by Subhani
Bass by Varun Venugopal
Electric Guitars by Sasanka
Additional Programming by Vivek Sagar
Produced and Mixed at Tapeloop
Mixed by Sanjay Das
Mastered by Shadab Rayeen
Arerey Manasa
Composed and Arranged by Vivek Sagar
Lyrics by Kittu Vissapragada
Vocals by Sid Sriram
Guitars by Varun Venugopal
Saarangi by Aslam Khan
Flute by Pramod Umapathi
Harmonium by Yakub Ali
Violin by Abhijert Gurjale
Bass and Additional Programming by Vivek Sagar
Drums by David Joseph
Recorded at Krimson Avenue , Chennai
Recorded and Produced at Tapeloop, Hyderabad
Mixed by Sanjay Das at Tapeloop
Mastered by Shadab Rayeen
Dasu Bindasu
Flute by Pramod Umapathi
Strings by SM Subhani
Saarangi by Aslam Khan
U-bass by Varun Venugopal
Percussion by Anil Robin
Arranged and Produced by Vivek Sagar
Additional Voice by Balaji Dake
Recording and Mixing Engineer – Sanjay Das
Recorded , Produced and Mixed at Tapeloop
Mastered by Shadab Rayeen
Paye Paye
Percussion by Anil Robin and Ganesh
Mandolin by Vivek Sagar
Nadaswaram by Mallikarjun
Recorded at Moksha Studios
Produced and Mixed at Tapeloop
Mixed by Sanjay Das
Mastered by Shadab Rayeen
Tum Miley Ho
Sung by Kailash Kher
Lyrics : Farooq Bakshi
