Songs and musician credits at the end.
Unlike its predecessor, the soundtrack of Rock On 2 has all but vanished from everyone’s minds. Which isn’t surprising either, given how the movie was received. One song from the movie that I do feel deserved to be popular, however, is this folk-rock fusion track that SEL had created with Shillong band Summersalt, titled Hoi Kiw. Axone features the same folk composition, presented in a more pristine form by composer Tajdar Junaid. Lyricist Master Warjri seems to have changed the lyrics a bit though, going by the axone references. While the main version of the song is largely percussion-driven (arranged and played by Freddy Connor Kharmutee, a member of Khasi folk band La Tynrai), the Dance Version does away with most of the words and sees some groovy synth and guitar bits introduced by Junaid, making it quite an engaging affair. Half the album is comprised of short, instrumental background pieces (I am a bit miffed that not all instrumental pieces credited at the end of the movie made it to the soundtrack). Bendang’s Dreamy Piano, Bendang’s Walking Away, Looking Into The Void, Upasana’s Theme are all pensive, synth-led ambient pieces of which I like the last one the best since there is also Ajay Jayanthi’s violin adding richness to the track.
Mangangsana composes two of the album’s other folk songs – Soraren and Nura Pakhang – both very minimally arranged and hence putting the spotlight squarely on the powerful vocals of his daughter, Manipuri singer Mangka Mayanglambam. Loved the yodel-y intonations in her delivery. In the second song, Mangka is prominently accompanied by Mrjing M on the bowed instrument called pena, that sounds slightly like the ravanahatha. One other track is titled Tokari Geet, a form of folk music highlighted by the stringed instrument called tokari – you might know/remember a folktronica interpretation of a tokari geet by Papon from season 2 of Coke Studio at MTV (the link, in case you do not). Axone’s Tokari Geet is sans any electronica, but features some lovely percussion, and tokari geet exponent Umakanta Bairagi behind the mic – a great listen. Finally, the album’s most mainstream-sounding track is Dance It Out composed and sung by Papon. And it is a dance-y pop song, as the title suggests.
Axone. It felt good to see a movie dealing with the subject that it did, and even more so, as a music-lover, to see a Bollywood movie soundtrack so heavily representing music from the North East. Tajdar Junaid’s Bollywood debut is a winner!
Music Aloud Rating: 3.5/5
Top Recos: Hoi Kiw, Soraren, Tokari Geet, Dance It Out
Musician Credits
