Excellent music. : For the first time a collection of a few songs with a woman’s “FREEDOM” as a theme, along with a few traditional folk songs, sung by “folk singers” themselves. I liked four songs very much. I did not buy the CD but rented it and taped these four songs.
The title song “Man Ke Manjire” starts off with mind-blowing music. It sounds like the wizardry of Anandan Sivamani. Since I didn’t buy the CD, I am not sure if it IS Anandan Sivamani himself, playing the music. The wordings of this song is excellent. This is the first time, (at least I have not come across any), a song that expresses a woman’s feeling of elation and FREEDOM. The feeling of freedom reaching its pinnacle with the verse…
ab na akeli hoon mein..
apni saheli hon mein..
saathi hoon apni mein…..With the rising beats of the music complementing the words, the listner can actually FEEL the tempo build.
The second song that I like is, “Babul : Jiya Mora”, I am no expert of music, but I think it’s a thumri. If it is thumri, again a rariity..a thumri with a theme of “Woman’s Freedom”. It speaks of a woman opting to be married to a blacksmith rather than a king or a businessman etc…so that her husband may melt away her chains (zanjeerein), preferring FREEDOM against kingdom and riches. Like the other Shobha (Gurtu), Shobha Mudgal’s voice and Thumri seem to be “made-for-each-other”.
The third song, I like is “Aiva Aiva”. A Gujarati folk songs sung by Divaliben Bhil, a famous folk singer from Gujarat. If you want to enjoy a folk song with fantastic modern instruments used for music, this is the one you can’t afford to miss. However, the much publicized Rajasthani folk song was a let-down…at least compared to the rest of the songs.
“Intezaar” is the song that I liked the least. I liked this one the least, simply because it has nothing new. Sure it is enjoyable to hear, with excellent music and Shobha Mudgal’s talented singing, but nothing “new” like the other three songs.
There are a few more songs in the album..but I didn’t like any.
An album with excellent music, novel theme, sung by tremendously talented singer, and songs, that you will want to listen to, again and again…and that too for a long long time..(Unlike the filmy songs that manage to hold one’s interest for barely 5 or 6 times)