A Rave-Worthy Effort.
The
Rahman-Ratnam-Gulzar combo strikes gold again with the music of the
eagerly awaited ‘Raavan’. A heady mixture of energy and innovation –
the music of Raavan does not disappoint. It ranks, along with Ishqiya,
as the best album of 2010 so far, and will probably end up within the
top five of the year
Album: Raavan
Music: A R Rahman
Released by: T-Series
Rating: * * * * (out of 5)
Being
A R Rahman can’t be easy. It’s one thing to be competing with the best
in the business, but when the toughest competitor around is yourself,
that’s when things get worse. The maestro is back with one of the most
awaited albums of the year, Raavan, where he
collaborates with director Mani Ratnam and lyricist Gulzar (the three
of them can safely be said to constitute the Holy Trinity of Bollywood
music).
It’s only natural, then, to approach an album like this with super-high
expectations and, sure enough, the music of Raavan does not disappoint. It
ranks, along with Ishqiya, as the best album of 2010 so far, and will probably
end up within the top five of the year.
Is it Rahman’s best? No, but it comes close. The music of Raavan is earthy,
percussive and full of imaginative arrangements, but it doesn’t scale the same
heights as Roja, Bombay, Dil Se or even Delhi-6.
It’s clear that many of the songs are made for the screen, and will
appeal more to some listeners once the videos or the movie itself is
out.
That said, this is one hell of a Rahman sucker-punch that
should keep listeners hooked (this reviewer listened to the entire
album thrice in the same day). The album opens with the eminently
hummable ‘Beera’, which is clearly an ode to the titular character
Beera essayed by Abhishek Bachchan. Sung by Kirti Sagathia and Vijay
Prakash, this one has chartbuster written all over it and has a nice
folk-rock vibe.
The second track, ‘Behne De’, is an aggressive
tour-de-force for singer Karthik who gets just the right amount of
angst in his vocals. With arrangements that include lush strings, a
choir, electronic synth leads and a deliciously angry electric guitar
riff, one can already imagine an adrenaline-pumping montage cut to this
brilliant track in the film.
This level of energy is carried
over to the next track, ‘Thok De Killi’. Here, Gulzar’s lyrics take
centre-stage with lines that speak of revolution and violence, and,
really, who better than Sukhwinder Singh to convey that feel, right?
The singer goes all out, while Rahman keeps pace with some impressive
orchestral arrangements.
This leads to the
magnum opus of the album, ‘Ranjha Ranjha’. Sung by Rekha Bharadwaj,
Javed Ali and Anuradha Sriram, this song packs a wallop – imagine
‘Maiyya Maiyya’ from Guru combined with ‘Liquid Dance’ from Slumdog
Millionaire. Gulzar’s poetry scales new heights – sample the line ‘jalti raakh
laga ley maathey lagey toh chandan hoy’ – and when the delectably fuzzy bass
kicks in, your foot will start tapping of its own accord no matter where you
are at that moment.
Rekha
Bharadwaj’s delectably silken vocals come once again in the next song,
a soft and romantic semi-classical number, ‘Khili Re’. While Rahman’s
arrangements are interesting, the song doesn’t compare to a ‘Badi
Dheere Jali’ (from Ishqiya) in terms of creating an
atmosphere; however, after the aggressive gale-force nature of the
tracks preceding it, this one comes as a pleasant zephyr. The album
ends with the heavily percussive ‘Kata Kata’, whose lyrics compare a
bachelor getting married to a lamb headed for slaughter. Sung with
tremendous energy by Ila Arun, Sapna Awasthi and Kunal Ganjawala, this
is one song that will look and sound better on screen than it does on
the album.
The good news:
Rahman’s only getting better with age. His music is growing more
complex in terms of arrangements and the production quality is par
excellence. Some might complain that the music of Raavan doesn’t have as much
melodic strength as, say, a Lagaan,
which is absolutely true. However, the music has to fit the film, and
in that regard, Rahman has hit the bulls-eye as usual. The Holy Trinity
can rack up another notch to their credit.
