Villager Visionary Winner in the cover with AbhishekBachhan’s side face in the inner cover with an earthy outlook is fascinating.The first promo aired on TV was also ambitious. The long folded cover has welldepicted the base of the movie. After Rang De Basanti now it’s the musicalmaestro and Mani Ratnam together for Guru. They have joined hands again afterYuva so the music was bound to be fantabulous. The lyrics by Gulzar must betagged the jewel in the crown.
Guru starts upwith “Barse Re” the conventional initials in very well supported by the pickybeats. The singers Shreya Ghosla and Uday Mazumdar have to be given formidablemarks for the portrayal of amazing vocal skills. Danceable song but still has theauthenticity of the land intact in it. Then we come across “Tere Bina” sung bythe musical genius himself and Chinmayee I don’t have appropriate words todescribe this song. As mentioned in the cover this is truly dedicated to thelegend Nursat Fathe Ali Khan. The lyric is just exceptional the Sargam by A RRahman is brilliant. This is nn immensely heart touching and emotion provokingsong, but doesn’t lack the conventional feel to support the movie. Consequentlythe voice of Bappi da amazes the listener in “Ek Lo Ek muft”; Chitra also hasexecuted her part of the song in an admirable manner. Still the conventionalinstrumentation is identifiable but the composition suits the voice of BappiLahari. At track 4 we have “Mayya” sung by Maryem Toller, Chinmayee &Keerthi. As usual Rahman this time also has brought out new talents and they havegiven a powerful performance. The music seems to be haunting but has the boogiefeel to it. It’s a song easy to groove in to.
Subsequently, weare enchanted by the voices of Hari Haran and Alka Yagnik in “Ae Hairathe” withan exceptional back vocal by the maestro. The song is simply breathtaking, Rahman made a great decision by giving such a hard song to both experiencedsingers who have done unmatched justice with the composition. The Latino typemusic is very well blended with flute and the easy dhol beats. Even the lyricsof this song are outstanding and the composition is just out of this world. Afterthat we get to hear “Baazi Laaga” formidably vocalized by Udit Narayan, Madhushree & Swetha Bargavee. The song has a dance feel to it but it isalso a great composition but here we encounter some modern instrumentationwhich might not blend that well with the movie I suppose. The song has finelyrics and the melody is also hum-able. Last but not the least we get tocaptivate our ears to “Jaage Hain” thrillingly executed by Chitra, AR Rahman& Madras Chorale Group. This song has a tragic touch to it but I think itsall about people awakening. A R Rahman’s voice adds even more zing to thisextraordinary number. The song is all set to make all the listeners stand upand salute this gem of an album.
On the whole, this is a must have album if you are a fan of A R Rahman. The music guru hasagain given us an album to cherish. After years Rahman and Mani Ratnam are backwith Gulzar also included in the band wagon I had expected a lot from thisalbum but I got more that I had expected.
Geshan Manandhar