Well, I’ve not written any review on any music before. Whenever the tunes of Rang De Basanti played I wanted to write, but here I’m hooked on after nearly 3yrs!
Taal being one of the most melodious albums ever made in Indian cinema, I was more than disappointed with rest of Mr. Ghai’s releases until this one. There was no news about this album and ARR once said in an interview about the music of Yuvvraaj, ‘Just wait and watch!’ hmm… there must be something really special about it, I knew!
It starts off with Salman Khan’s rendition with Beethoven’s in the background. A perfect start to the album with Salman Khan’s distinct accent… not American not British, its Sallu’s own!
Then the 1st song of the album kicks off with Benny Dayal’s high notes followed by western-mode chorus. Gulzar’s presence is felt with
‘main jaagta rehta hoo neend bhari jheel si aankhon mein’ Even before Shreya Ghoshal starts, you’ll start humming. There’s a never-heard-before kind of ARR’s appearance which fades in a few seconds! And you’ll love it… well, expectations are set quite high!
Next song starts with your foot tapping right away! Though I felt
‘Shano Shano’ is done with quite an average melody, Sonu Nigam comes as a soothing refresher. Gulzar again keeps you wondering with
‘apno se mat uljho tum ghaironki baat par’. Well, I would’ve loved it if this song was 2 minutes shorter. This song gently reminds you of
‘chori pe chori’ from Saathiyaa and towards the end more like
‘Baazi laga’ from Guru. An average dance number hopefully with some excellent choreography…
Hmm, one good song and one average number! What’s next? The soulful song of the album…
Right from the 1st note of this five and a half minute journey is something you’ll cherish for long time. Alka Yagnik has outdone herself & Javed Ali whose
‘Jashn-e-bahara’ still echoes is fabulous in this one. Be it heavy duty violins or alaps
‘Tu Muskura’ is a clear winner! With lines like
‘Tez chalti hai hawavon ki saasein’ – Gulzar is again at his creative best! As this song gets better, the final aalap ends with your Goosebumps on! 10 on 10… if
‘Ae Ajnabi’ was my most favorite, I rate this the 2nd best! Alka, you take away the best singer award this year!
Now, it’s only a pity for
‘Mastam Mastam’. I wonder who will like this kind of a song! It reminds me heavily of an already forgotten ARR’s number from One2ka4 which was
‘Alley Alley’. This song is definitely more situational with weird noises and incomprehensible pen of Gulzar. Ghai can only hope people would love the visuals and let Gulzar explain what are
hastam, shustam and
sustam!
Srinivas who’s another underrated talent soothes with
‘Zindagi Zindagi, kya kami rehgayi’. Wish he had more numbers in Hindi. I must say the 2nd line of pallavi gets its beats from
‘Lukka Chuppi’ (Rang De). You may choose to ignore because it’s the maestro’s own composition. A decent number!
Next comes the lengthiest track of the album… 7minutes –
‘Dil Ka Rishta’. This was the 1st tune I saw on trailers and got glued to my keyboard until I played it. A very simple tune made into a jingle of western and classical extravaganza! This one’s meant to be played in the movie like
‘Ishq bina kya jeena’ in Taal as a climax song, so expected to be the best of the lot. And yes, it is… with huge contributions right from Roop kumar Rathod, Sonu Nigam and the maestro himself doing an unusual sargam. The English lyrics in the song induce quite some sentiments…
‘Passion, aggression… can I leave it somewhere!’ Gulzar gives his best to match Ghai’s philosophy… this song comes with more memorable lines
‘sar pe agar dhoop na ho, saaya utarta nahi… rishte bina hai jiss tarah saaye bina aadmi… tu palke utta tho zara, rishton ki roshni tho ho!’ etc etc…
There’s so much about this track that you’ll love and might take it as your favorite number!
‘Manmohini Morey’… I’ve frankly never liked mixing a Hindustani classical with jingles and techno beats. But when the maestro’s done it, it’s gotta be good. Wherever he found this guy Vijay Prakash (Saregamapa Alumni) and gave him a song like he did for Sukhwinder Singh (
chayya chayya)!! There's a blend of
'Manmohini' mixed with the tunes of
‘Tu Muskura’ so perfectly and you’ll not stop smiling. Creativity at its best!
The last track of the album is the least I liked. You might not agree, but the only good thing about this remixed version of
‘Shaano Shaano’ is Salman’s bad guy voice and some peppy English lyrics like
‘Please me, don’t you want my room keys… I’m the Casanova’ Goes well with Sallu’s so called image. You may tap your foot here and there in those 2minutes and that’s it!
So that was Yuvvraaj! 3 cheers to the trio of ARR, Ghai and Gulzar saab. They make this album a memorable and a soulful creation… play it in loop and hey, you might get addicted and infected by a virus out of ARR’s soul!
‘You hopeless fellow’, my dad used to call me when he disliked my shabbiness as a child. Now I’m a different person but still hopeless…
