I am writing this review on this album as I find this the only Hindi movie Soundtrack of late worth your ink, with an exception of two songs of Fanaa. The Gangster album stands out for its composition, with a beautiful mix of genres from Rock Ballads (Bheegi Bheegi) to soft Ballads (Lamha Lamha) to Thumri (Mujhe Mat Roko). Soulful and forceful singing and sensible https://lyrics.
In my eyes Pritam has been a Good but heavily ‘Inspired’ music Director. But this score has lifted his score on originality front. It is after long time that you get a full-blown metal ballad in a movie soundtrack and see it adding immense value in the portrayal of anguish of betrayal on screen. There was a Mustafa Mustafa which used distorted Guitar as a trick but it was not a melancholy number. There was also this recent Too hai asma mein. But beauty of Rock comes about only in melancholic numbers. November Rain?
The Number Bheegi Bheegi, the day I heard first I was hooked right away. I thought it was a Junoon single which to date I believe. I feel James is a pseudonym of Salman Ahmed the lead vocalist of Junoon. May be I am wrong! In any case the song qualifies as proper metal number, due to good arrangement and singing. The singer though not as high pitched as Palash Sen, does full jusice to the genre. The bending and all in the second stanza (Alternate Kaisi hai ye jindganeeee) are world class. The drumming is in sync with the soul of the song, with giving much required starting roll at Na jane Koi….
The chorus is doing its job just fine. Aahaa ahahaha… Sapno ka saya palkon pe aya pal me hansaya pal mein rulaya…Way to Go!
Next on my favorite list is Lamha Lamha rendered by underrated and underused due to his temperament, Abhijit and a female singer. His silky voice lends itself to the number beautifully and you fell no one else could have sung this song. The tenderness, the pathos, the longing all the intended emotions are brought about beautifully. The lyricist has more than done his job. Now a days when you see catch line songs, it is refreshing to see some semblance of poetry in songs. Nowadays with people like Prasoon Joshi and a few others around, one can hope to see more poetry in songs.
Tu hi meri Shab hai is a pure KK song, with soaring vocals by him. But KK is running the risk of being type’cast’ because he is getting the typical high pitched flat numbers (Soniye..) only. But may be he is appreciated more in his tadap tadap mode. We do not complain as long as he keeps churning out soulful numbers. I get to hear this song mostly on FM while traveling, and honestly sometimes the Teri Khushi…line seems to be ‘overpitched’, or should I say noisy? But I love to hum this song.
The Ya ali song sung by a new singer has most of the elements of conventional sufi Gayaki, except for the Rhythm. The singer does full justice to the composition and ably prevents the number turning into a high-pitched but flat one. The positioning of the song in the movie initially shocked me as this song was being enacted in the background when Shiny was being brutally beaten up by the henchmen of GG. But in the end he finishes them all off justifying the background song.
Mujhe mat roko adds to the diversity of the album. Very unheard song otherwise. These FM channel pay for a song or two and keep repeating them till your senses ache. But during this many good songs fall by the wayside. Quite like the case with the reviews on MS.
In all this is an able Album which supported the storyline to the hilt and added to the impact of the movie. A must have.