The musical pieces are understandably eclectic – Symphony of the streets sure is, but Atomizer is a great mix of the filmy tune style and the kind of music Midival Punditz and Karsh Kale are known for. Anushka Manchanda’s What the F gets its glitzy sound right, but as a tune, it fails. Kailash Kher’s Mein chala sits uncomfortably atop that electronica, but Vishal Vaid gets it bang-on with Ek manzil; a thoroughly engaging hook repeated appropriately. The song’s instrumental version, presented as The Soundtrack Theme too is a brilliant alternate take. Vishal’s other, Fakira, is an imaginative techno-tune, that works even beyond its conventional Middle-Eastern’ish exotica. Papon carries the beautifully trippy Banao almost single-handedly, much like his other, earlier song Naina lagey which works more for his vocals – here’s a singer who uses his mesmerizing vocals to superb effect! Ankur Tewari’s Xulfi produced Jannat continues to impress as it did in Ankur’s debut album, while the 2 remixes, Ruk jaana nahin and Yeh jeevan hai are fresh and interesting remix attempts – the choice of singers, Suraj Jagan and Malini Awasthi, respectively, works wonderfully well. Soundtrack’s soundtrack (!!) is devoid of usual Bollywood soundtrack’ness and offers a plucky new direction!
Keywords: Soundtrack, Midival Punditz, Karsh Kale, Vishal Vaid, Kailash Kher, Papon, Ankur Tewari, #200
Note: I quite like how to composing credits are presented in the CD. For instance, Mein chala has ‘Music composed and performed by Midival Punditz, Karsh Kale and Kailash Kher’, Ek manzil has ‘Music composed and performed by Vishal Vaid and Karsh Kale’, and Fakira has ‘Music composed by Midival Punditz, Karsh Kale and Vishal Vaid’. If it is indeed a mix of the composers and singers as credited, this is an interesting trend in the composing style in Bollywood that has been dominated by the ‘music directors’ and heralds a collaborative method of creating music. Not just that – even the credits are shared…another healthy trend!
