F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b

Matargashti is a song that is filled with fantastic sounds, although it sounds over the top a lot of times (especially when Mohit tries hard to reduce A R Rahman’s burden of polishing the song – in high notes), but the simple notes are Mr. Chauhan’s forte in the studio, and he rules it. Somehow I felt there was too much happening in the song and nothing new hit me.

Mika is always hungry, and he chews on words making it impossible for most of us to understand what he is trying to sing. Heer to badi sad hai is no exception. Rahman has composed this with a lot of love, and it shows. Irshad Kamil can be quite cheeky and in this song, it works like magic! Not saying Mika didn’t suit the song, but this song would have been so so good had Sonu Nigam, Nakash or Javed Ali would have loaned their voice.

Alka Yagnik sounds unlike herself when Tum saath ho begins, and you can’t help but think it is a slow tempo ‘Maahi ve’ beat that is embellishing the song, which is easily the best penned song of the album. Making Arijit sing in two different pitches (or tracks or whatever it is called) and keeping both in the song is a shot of genius because it doesn’t allow the Arijit fatigue to creep up. Good to have Alka Yagnik back. Sadhna Sargam in DLKH and Alka here, this is a good year for us 90s kids!

Wat wat wat wat – Shashwat Singh (not ‘Sashwat’ as iTunes would have us believe) kicks it, and my God, does he do a great job doing it! A somewhat street treatment to a Bhojpuri song filled with moans and exotic ‘la la’ at strategic places, this song is easily the ear-worm of the album, and don’t bother liking it because once you hear it, you will not be able to ‘un-play’ it in your head. I am sure it was a situational demand to do so but Arijit drags the song down and is no match for Shashwat. There is a vengeance mix of the song which is groovy and electric and has no Arijit Singh. Even ARR knew it would be great to let Shashwat have a go at it, alone. It is like ‘Wanna mash up’ in Bhojpuri and I LOVED Wanna mash up! Not to forget the excellent lyrics of the song – udat chidiya ke haldi ragad ke lagawat…WTF! Superb imagination!

Chali kahani – appears to be a stage song but it cannot hide under this fact for being awfully low on melody and cacophonous at places. We have enough examples of great stage songs and that is why this song is quite a put off especially coming from ARR. Sukhwinder shines but Haripriya and Haricharan have been given the worst lines (and tune) of the album so they made peace with it. The song  wanted to be an ‘Aao na’, skirted ‘sheher’ and ‘ishq bina’ but failed miserably at achieving anything even in between, and what is with that ‘Subhash-Ghai’s-sque-attempt-at-deafening-in-your-face-grand sound’ ? No, No, No!

Safarnama – Lucky Ali has always been a king of flat tunes which do not challenge the singer to go high. Nothing wrong with that. People have their niches. In this song, he tries again to step out of his comfort zone and am sure it needed a lot of ‘studio work’ to make it ‘better’. The song has a nice vibe to it mostly when he is humming or when that beautiful music arrangement is taking its toll without him singing. In other parts, the song is a torture.

Parade De La Bastille – is a magnificent piece which has shades of matargashti but with no vocal parts in it to spoil the song for you. The metal flute and other exotic instruments along with strings and accordion sit comfortably and request your senses to rest yourself in their lap, and perhaps sleep. I absolutely loved the way the tune ends. Hi A.R. Rahman!

Tu Koi aur hai – starts with the all too familiar ARR style of luring your senses to give up everything and pay attention to what the Mozart from madras is whispering in your ears. Sadly, the song loses itself quite quickly in the murky overalls of a bad tune and ordinary words. This is the longest song of the album, and what can be worse than the fact that you literally wait for the song to end.

I am quite sure everyone will find their reason to like the album because they have to, just like some of them argue and tell me how great the music of ‘lekar hum deewana dil’ was. To me, the album comes across as being too self aware having great sense of occasion but terribly low on melody. There is too much indulgence, sometimes, in between, and at times, towards the end of songs. In a bid to keep the sound theatrical, I guess, the background music got merged into songs…which weighs you down and doesn’t let you soak into the music.

The album, from ARR standards is underwhelming and I think this thing toh  utter sad hai.

– Rohwit