Rudine rangeeli’s showstoppers are clearly Karsan Sagathia, who brings his unique style of high-pitched, flawless folk singing, and Paras Nath, on the flute. Paras’ extended finale, with Sulaiman Merchant Darshan Joshi on the percussion is exhilarating. The overall track, though, doesn’t flow as beautifully as its individual highlights.
Salim and Sulaiman smoothen Rudine’s overall state of disjointed’ness very well in Namaste, this time using Punjabi folk, as against Rudine’s Gujarati folk. The folk group headed by Des Raj Lachkani gels beautifully with the other voices, led by Shraddha Pandit and the chorus, by Shannon Donald, Crystal Sequeira, Keshia Braganza and the 4th unnamed lady! This is terrific fusion, done well with every element getting a fantastic showcase while working seamlessly overall too, all laced with a pulsating rhythm!
The duo considerably spruce up their own song from Aazaan, add Munawar Masoom to the mix, to join Kailash Kher and create a wonderfully serene and pious qawali in Bismillah! Kailash is his usual self – superbly adept in the higher pitches and the occasional harmonium by Firoz Shah only adds to the overall effect!
Dilshad Khan’s sarangi is the highlight of Kare mann bhajan, but this song’s significant weakness is also Salim opting to sing it himself. It’s rather pop’ish in comparison to the more authentic and evocative version by Ustad Sultan Khan that @kaurvaki was kind of enough to introduce to me. But one can’t help liking the song in any case, given its lovely Charukesi base, with it reminding me of Ravindra Jain equally beautiful Charukesi bhajan from Geet Gaata Chal, Shyam Tere Bansi!
Vijay Prakash and Taufiq Qureshi power Sati, with the latter in particularly amazing form, as is expected of him. Aamir Damami makes his presence felt too, amidst the stalwarts, with his trumpet, as much as the Bombay String Orchestra. The sheer energy Taufiq brings the track with his percussions is awe-inspiring!
Despite Salim’s weak vocals, the Jog raag based Cheene re mora chain makes for a wonderful listen, thanks largely to Ustad Rashid Khan propping the song with his vocals, and spritely guitar by Warren Mendonsa and Nyzel D’lima! The song is naturally and instanty likeable, with a ebullient sound that the raag Jog brings to it.
Competent set by Salim Sulaiman, barring Salim’s persistent interest in singing that perhaps pulls down some of the songs. My favorites include Namaste and Cheene re mora.
