Long pending Dil Becharaa Music Review

 Dil Becharaa in many ways is a very unique and special album. As far as music is concerned, it's a complete package from AR Rahman Sir after long long time. If you see Rahman Sir's work in the last 5 years, he did soundtracks for either non-hindi movies or some really off-beat hindi cinema like Beyond the clouds, Sachin- A billion dreams, the songs of which are equally amazing but conventionally haven't got the commercial popularity. 

So for me Dil Bechaara is that long awaited album which has tracks from diverse genres and equally additive & melodious. And to add to it, there's this Sushant Singh Rajput factor tagged to it that this album remains special in its own way. 

The album starts with the title track 'Dil Becharaa' by none other than ARR himself, as we know his love to sing at least 1 song, potentially the title song, from the album. So this track appears a little monotonous initially in the first 2 lines, however it's an absolute fun song once the interlude piece begins which is again ARR's signature talent and the stanza is even more fun.

याद है मुझे तेरा birthday 

तू हर साल मेरा birthday भूल भूल भूल जाये

रोज तेरे कॉल की मैं राह देखू 

तू sms भी ना करे 

तू मुझे miss भी ना करे

क्यू मुझे miss भी ना करे

Yes, they're lyrics and not any chat conversation..Haha! And AR Sir has composed & sung this part beautifully. Especially listen to last 3 lines from तू sms भी ना करे. . . 

All the songs after Dil Becharaa title track are just better than each other!! 'Taare gin' is a classic rendition by Mohit Chauhan and our very own lovely Shreya! Just listen to the Antara or stanza of this song and you will experience the magical overlapping singing of the 2 singers, one of those musical patterns AR Sir is known for creating (Remember Rukmini song; the chorus part in the last.)

Next one is a ballad - Khul ke jeene ka tareeka. Just wonderfully penned such apt lyrics and beautifully sung by the talented Arijit singh and Shasha Tirupathi.

Shasha may not be a known name in commercial cinema but she's quite an established Indian-born Canadian singer with a lot of songs in various languages(Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, English) to her credit; some are her own and some with really good Indian composers, Rahman Sir being one of them for collaborating with her in Coke Studio for the first time is 2013. Ever since then she has sung for him in some of the Tamil films and now she's getting the much deserved fame in Bollywood too. Very talented singer with beautiful melodious voice! 

खुशियां तो रखी है pocket में

कागज के नन्हे से packet में

इनकी बिजली की तरह क्यों बचत करें बताओ ना

खरच कर डालेंगे सारी आज ही आओ ना

है मेहेंगे दर्द बडे ऑर मुस्कान पायी हमने मुफ्त में 

So so apt for us especially in today's ira! 

The next one is 'Main Tumhara'. Simply a musical treasure! An easy on ears sounding but extremely difficult to render according to me. Again another set of absolutely talented singers. My personal favourite Jonita Gandhi, another Indo-Canadian singer and a coke studio participent. She too has sung in various languages and I would say, one of the most popular and composers' favourite singers in recent times. 

The male singer Hriday Gattani too has a very interesting background. His father was the music arranger for many of AR sir's live concerts and thus he also has been mentored by Rahman Sir.  You can very much notice his versatility when he sings 'Main Tumhara' as well as this fun song 'मस्खरी' along with Sunidhi Chauhan. Personally for me, watching Sushant Singh with full charm, energy and enthusiasm was a treat and misery both at the same time! 

मस्खरी is a a full fun, मस्ती track. A perfect choice when you're just low or feel an air of melancholy around. Sunidhi's only song after तू कुजा (Highway) with Rahman Sir that I remember. तू कूजा is another gem in itself from ARR's career journey I feel. My all time favourite composition whenever I need some positive vibes around. 

So coming back to Dil Becharaa, the next one is Afreeda. This song is the reason why I termed this album as a complete package. This song immediately transports me to the Rangeela or Yuvaa ira. Remember the songs मांगता है क्या and डोल डोल respectively. Or even Hey काला बंदर from Delhi-6. Afreeda is exactly this genre which is a unique ARR thing again. Not all can have an ear for such songs. 

मेरा नाम Kizzy is an absolute surprise to me for one strong reason. Aditya Narayan. What an amazing voice he has. Or it has blended so well with the composition! Just wonderful. I couldn't guess him at all. Listen to him in stanza. 

गालों के दोनों में दाए बाए डिंपल

है कॉम्प्लिकेटेड पर देखने में सिंपल

गूगल पे धुँडो या सारी दुनिया छानो 

अपने जैसा न मिलेगा sample 

Just listen to how he sings 'दाए बाए'. Just awesome. This one song was fair enough to know how well he is doing in his sangeet sadhana. I wish him all the success. And Poorvi Koutish, Indian Idol 06 product. I like her honey-sweet textural voice that blends perfectly with Aditya's voice and the song. And funnily, ironically this was supposed to be the title track originally, as the movie name decided earlier was Kizzy and Mannie. 

So that's a complete package of beautiful, melodious and a very special soundtrack of 'Dil Becharaa' by none other than the legendary maestro ARR.   

Chikni Chameli yaa Shreya ...?!

I just could not believe that Chikni chameli has been sung by Shreya. First of all, a fantastic catchy composition by none other than Ajay-Atul, video is outright vulgar though. ;). The attitude required while singing such a song is absolutely not easy and thus, while guessing the singer, Shreya's name never came to my mind. Just was thinking and thinking and thinking, who this singer is! And, mom said, didn't you read, who has sung the song! To my biggest surprise, it was Shreya! I googled and re-confirmed. The kind of voice quality Shreya has, her expertise predominantly lies in romantic, sensitive numbers or few selective peppy numbers, was my belief. But no, Shreya proved me totally wrong, when I got to hear Chickney chameli.

Off course, there have been songs like Yeh ishq haaye(JWM) or Barso se(Guru) in which Shreya has indeed surprised me. But this one was a big O! Personally for me, it's Shreya, who has made the song special and popular and not Katrina.. :). Kombdi palali is the marathi and original version of this song, but somehow i never liked it, not to even an extent that I am selectively playing it from my playlist, nor is it in my playlist, in fact. But Chikni chameli, loved it totally! 

कहीं तो..होगी वो (जादू )

Finally, I set out to write this one. When I thought of creating such a music blog, I thought of commencing the same with one of the greatest compositions of AR Rehman Sir. There are plenty of other beautiful songs that have touched my heart but then I wanted to 'inaugurate' this blog with a post on this special song!
 

कहीं तो..होगी वो from जाने तू या जाने ना does not have multiple instruments and rhythms and beats etc etc. However, yet this soothing number sung by Rashid Ali(Yeah, we haven't heard him much yet) and Vasundhara Das steals your heart. It's the 'tune' that creates the magic. It might take a while for one to register the song, as the tune does not fall under the quick-catchy category. The portion 'जाने ना कहा वो दुनिया है, जाने ना वो है भी या नही..जहाँ मेरी जिंदगी मुझसे इतनी खफा नहीं'  is the soul of the tune. 

Female part sung by Vasundhara Das actually starts at the Antara; very much known style of Rehman Sir.  A little husky and broad voice tone of Vasundhara beautifies the Antara and thus the song completely. In the last part, raising the part 'जाने ना कहा......खफा नहीं' by a half note creates a beautiful tone to the song. It's so much addictive and remains on the repeat mode in your player that I feel like saying, कहीं तो..होगी वो (जादू) by which Rehman Sir creates such amazing tunes. ;)

You can listen to this track on this link, track number 6.

http://musicindiaonline.co/#/album/7-Hindi_Movie_Songs/22913-Jaane_Tu_Ya_Jaane_Na/

- Aditi