Haunting melodies, stirring emotions

In their last outing together (Mirzya, 2016), Shankar Ehsaan Loy (SEL) and Gulzar had produced a wonderfully imaginative jazz flavoured bidaai song in the form of ‘Doli Re Doli’. In Raazi, the team comes up with a more conventional, but no less brilliant track in the same genre called ‘Dilbaro’. Starting with a traditional Kashmiri piece ‘Khanmaej Koor’ sung by Vibha Saraf around which the composers weave their melody; the song unfolds into a beautiful portrayal of the bride’s emotions in its first half (sung splendidly by Harshdeep Kaur) while in the second half, Shankar Mahadevan makes a short but wonderful appearance representing the father’s soulful response. The folk orchestration is highlighted by Tapas Roy’s work on the rabab/dotara and Arshad Khan’s esraj, the latter in particular lending beautifully to the song’s wistful tone (and love the fact that the trio have a lovely bass line going). Despite the occasional memories it evokes of inspirational pieces that SEL have composed in the past, ‘Ae Watan’ is without doubt the best patriotic song to have come out of Bollywood in a long time. Arijit Singh leads the earnest piece in style, with a fine chorus in tow and a grand soundscape that while making the song a haunting one, contributes to the earlier mentioned déjà vu factor.

The composers hand the alternate version of ‘Ae Watan’ to Sunidhi Chauhan and a bunch of talented kids from the Shankar Mahadevan Music Academy Children’s Chorus. While retaining the main melody, the song receives a totally different treatment here. The orchestral backdrop is replaced with a folksy one (which means more of Roy’s awesomeness). And the song is sandwiched between free form (seemingly raag Kedaar/Hamir Kalyani-based) renditions of the opening lines of Muhammad Iqbal’s ‘Lab Pe Aati Hai Dua’ — while Sunidhi sings the prelude version of the poem, the closing bit is sung by a very promising sounding Satyajeet Jena. My favourite from the album is another Singh song — the title track where the man proves in spectacular fashion what he is capable of when utilised properly, while receiving great backing from Mani Mahadevan, Ravi Mishra and Arshad Mohammed. Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s folk-infused sound invokes a hinterland-ish vibe that perfectly suits Gulzar’s words that speak of challenges and sacrifices. Roy and Khan once again rule the arrangement of the track that is a delightful throwback to Mirzya in some ways (the punctuated use of Agar Dil in particular takes me back to the song ‘Hota Hai’).

With Raazi, SEL end their year-long break to produce a gem of a soundtrack with the veteran Gulzar. Wish the soundtrack was longer, but then director Meghna Gulzar’s last film also had a four-song soundtrack.