Highway Music Review

Highway Music Review
Music Direction : A R Rahman
Lyrics : Irshad Kamil

What I expected? : Rahman in his splendid form, after the brilliant Raanjhanaa and by the looks of initial releases, Patakha Gudi and Maahi Ve!

Maahi Ve, with towering vocals from Rahman and underlying hip hop beats, cannot get any more sexier! The spiced up arrangements adds to the beauty. The similarity in beats with Maahi Ve doesn't but affect the Punjabi-folk-hip-hop Patakha Guddi the slightest. Nooran Sisters enthralls and Rahman pulls out magic in the F and M versions respectively. Watch out for the amazing rock-revamp towards the middle in the M version, bloody awesome, that! Jonita Gandhi breaks into the Rahman league with Kahaan Hoon Mein and what a pure ear orgasm the piece is! Jonita's vocals fit perfectly into the keys led beauty of an arrangement in here. All hail Rahman! Wanna Mashup is not so lucky though. In parts it looks like an attempt to ape K-Pop style, from the reggae beats and rapping, but has gone horrible bad, Suvi Suresh, Krissy and Kash tries hard though. Sooha Sooha is neat, calm, soothing and fascinating, all at the same time. An ethereal lullaby tune that can take you back to the Rahman of the early 2000s, the folk track is here to stay. The real stunner comes through the vocals of Zebunnisa Bangash where she pulls a winner while Alia Bhatt sings one stanza, impressively! Tu Kuja, with Urdu lyrics, works big time, thanks to Sunidhi's singing and the deep and sonorous desi orchestration. Heera has a surreal beauty within, it is the violin and the smooth tune probably, and Shwetha Pandit's controlled whispery vocals add to it. Jonita Gandhi's haunting humming is spread all over Implosive Silence, an instrumental piece primarily, where Rahman apparently plays with his electronic production skills. Impressive!

Verdict : Highway music doesn't disappoint. It has plenty in store for us to hear and hear again and relish for the coming days. But when juxtaposed with expectations, the album is two notches lower. I mean it just doesn't click the way Rockstar or Raanjhanaa or even Jab Tak Hai Jaan did. Not that it is bad though, just that it won't be featuring among Rahman's best works years from now. May be this is the kind of music the movie demands, I don't know. Nevertheless, when compared to the current condition of mainstream Bollywood music, Highway is still a huge and welcome relief! Highway, high on music! Very Good.

Must Hears! : Sooha Saha, Maahi Ve, Patakha Guddi, Heera


AVOIDABLE<POOR<BELOW AVG<AVERAGE<GOOD< VERYGOOD <EXCELLENT!<OUTSTANDING!

Raanjhanaa Music Review

Raanjhanaa Music 
Music Direction : A R Rahman
Lyrics : Irshad Kamil

Buy the songs legally, Here
Listen to the songs legally, Here or Here

What I Expected? : Rahman, big time!

Raanjhanaa is sound fiesta! The impeccable vocals of Jaswinder Sing & Shiraz Uppal infused into the hugely energetic yet lovely desi arrangements,(the Sitar for instance, stands out) makes up for a wonderful hear! #Must Hear #Repeat
Banarasiya is where Shreya Ghoshal and A R Rahman scores together, in the singing and composition departments respectively, it is hard to say who outshines whom for the song is one perfect example why Shreya is called the modern Indian nightingale and why Rahman is the nemero uno with all the sweet Sitar merged to the perky Indian composition(Sangeet song), making it highly intriguing! Meena Jain and Anweshaa provide ample support. #Must Hear #Repeat
Piya Milenge is basically a bag of too many good things, strong vocals(Sukhwinder Singh and KMMC Sufi Ensemble), brilliant composition, profound sufi touch, lilting classical base, the predominant urbane beat given a Qawaali edge and the deep lyrics! #Too hard to miss #Repeat
Nazar Laaye is absolutely breezy with the urbane coolness! A romantic ballad, where the soulful vocals of Rashid Ali and Neeti Mohan doesn't go wrong! #Must Hear #Repeat
Aisa Na Dekho surfaces with that lazy-lazy feel, aided heavily by A R Rahman's mastered vocals led by jazz strings and homely lyrics! #Repeat
Tum Tak is truly experimentation at its peak, a purposefully less engaging start then recreates itself in to a cat and mouse race of swaying composition and unmistakable singing, with the apt arrangements and brilliant lyrics setting the divine mood right! #Must Hear #Repeat
Aey Sakhi is has a highly sonorous sound, with the four ladies(Madhushree, Chinmayi, Vaishali and Aanchal Sethi) enjoying themselves in the cheerful yet funny composition coated with the standout sound of Ghatam! #Must Hear #Repeat
Tu Mun Shudi is desi-techno, presumably the less engaging of the lot even with Rabbi Shergill getting a nice piece of music to engage in his own favorite area of music. Good hear!
The Land of Shiva, the instrumental piece, is functional with the Mahadev chants and rudra beats.


Verdict : #MustHear! #Repeat! #Creativity at its best! #Classic Rahman, big time!

Must Hear! : The whole album!

Buy the songs legally Here 
Listen to the songs legally, Here or Here


4.25/5
AVOIDABLE<POOR<BELOW AVG<AVERAGE<GOOD< VERYGOOD <EXCELLENT!<OUTSTANDING!

(This is the 2nd Outstanding! album rating in IndiBeats the first one being 'Thattathin Marayath'. With the test of time, 4.25 can translate itself into 4.5, for that we have to wait and watch.)

Jab Tak Hai Jaan Music Review

Jab Tak Hai Jaan Music

Music Director : A R Rahman

Lyrics : Gulzar

What I expected? : You really want me to say?

Challa by Rabbi opens the soundtrack with refreshing and super cool guitar riffs, riding through an urbane-Sufi setup and even when it take references from Rabbi's own Bulla song, manages to impress big time as a standalone track with excellent and stylish neoteric arrangements! Good hear! 

Saans by Mohit Chauhan and Shreya Ghoshal is unbelievably intense, melancholic, soulful and sweet being a signature Yash Chopra romantic track boasting of an excellent tune, arrangements and soul stirring lyrics! Shreya show all the way and a great great hear!!

Saans Reprise by Shreya Ghoshal is short yet heaven!!

Ishq Shava sung by Raghav Mathur and Shilpa Rao is kind of a heard before Rahman dance track of the 90's,  yet engaging in every way, the catchy tune, fresh rendition and the seductive, modern, Arabic and Spanish influenced arrangements building up for a good hear!

Heer by Harshdeep Kaur, an amazing Punjabi flavored sweet and passionate track, slow, powerful with novel arrangements and sung to perfection by Harshdeep.! What a composition.! What great lyrics! No words, great great hear!!

Jiya Re by Neeti Mohan must be picturised on a modern Anushka Sharma since the track is a youthful and sonorous joyful-holiday-celebration mood ride with unconventionally good singing by Neeti(loved the raps in between!) and urbane cool arrangements giving a great hear!

Jab Tak Hai Jaan by Javed Ali and Shakthisree Gopalan, the title track hopefully, starts off in a lively, intense, romantic high pitched mode then transitions itself into a complete Qwaali style with the shrill voice of Shakthisree going perfectly in sync with the setup. A good hear but a tad underwhelming! Could have been better.

Ishq Dance, a 3 minute long instrumental showcases modern African dance beats. Good hear!

Jab Tak Hai Jaan Poem, the serene and literally beautiful poetic dialog piece by SRK and written by Gulzar sahib given upper lift by some cool romantic background is nothing but classic!

Verdict : Another Rahman magic.This album has everything from romantic, modern, desi and poetic tracks without letting us down even by a single bit.! What I loved about this one is that all the songs go straight in to our heart, it clicks and sinks in without taking any time at all unlike many of the Rahman albums recently. You'll hear it. You'll love it! JTHJ all set to rule the charts in the coming weeks! Highly Recommended!

AVERAGE<GOOD<VERY GOOD<EXCELLENT!<OUTSTANDING!

4/5

Must hears! : Saans, Heer, Jab Tak Hai Jaan poem