Anyone who has not listened to this album has missed out on the best thing that has happened to the Indian music scene in the last twelve months. SONA the album as well as Sona the singer come as a revelation. Just when aficionados were giving up on non-film albums( the only exception being Kailasa perhaps?) SONA comes as a breadth of fresh air.
Lyricist Munna Dhiman and composer Ram Sampath have done a great job, but it is the rare timber in Sona Mohapatra’s voice and her sheer versatality in rendering songs of different generes with such aplomb is what this album is all about. Listen to the 2nd. track Abhi Nahin Aana.( I know Bolo Na is better known but that’s because of the video) early in the morning and chances are that this soulful song will stay with you for the rest of the day. Mostly robust and masculine like Abida Parveen but also sonorous and lilting, even playful, like Shreya Ghosal, Sona’s voice is one of a kind.
Interestingly, the trio claim on the cd cover that they were not worried about the marketplace while making this album. Well, that’s a good thing. That attitude should should stand them in good stead for a long time to come. I am sick and tired of people forever claiming that the market is everything! Heck no! The market is everthing when you are into manufacturing potato chips. Not when you are making such sublime music. Congrats to Sony BMG too for giving us SONA.