Songs and musician credits at the end.
In their last outing together (Mirzya, 2016), Shankar Ehsaan Loy and Gulzar had produced a wonderfully imaginative jazz flavoured bidaai song in the form of Doli Re Doli. In Raazi, the team comes up with a musically more conventional, but no less brilliant song in the same genre called Dilbaro. Starting with a traditional Kashmiri piece Khanmaej Koor (thanks to @p1j for this bit of trivia) sung by Vibha Saraf (a lovely note from the singer about the song’s writing) around which the composers weave their melody, the song unfolds into a beautiful portrayal of the bride’s emotions in its first half (sung splendidly by Harshdeep Kaur) while in the second half Shankar Mahadevan makes a short but fabulous appearance voicing the father’s soulful response. The folk orchestration is highlighted by Tapas Roy’s work on rabab/dotara and Arshad Khan’s esraj, the latter in particular lending beautifully to the song’s wistful tone (and love the fact that the trio have a lovely bass line going here too). Despite the occasional memories it evokes of inspirational pieces that SEL have composed in the past, Ae Watan is without doubt the best patriotic song to have come out of Bollywood in a long time. Arijit Singh leads the earnest piece in style, with a fine chorus in tow and a grand soundscape that while making the song a haunting one, contributes to the earlier mentioned déjà vu factor.
The composers hand the alternate version of Ae Watan to Sunidhi Chauhan and a bunch of talented kids comprising the Shankar Mahadevan Music Academy Childrens Chorus. While retaining the main melody, the song receives a totally different treatment here. The orchestral backdrop is replaced with a folksy one (which means more of Tapas Roy’s awesomeness). And the song is sandwiched between free form (seemingly kedaar/hamir kalyani raga based) renditions of the opening lines of Muhammad Iqbal’s Lab Pe Aati Hai Dua – while Sunidhi sings the prelude version of the poem, the closing bit is sung by a very promising sounding Satyajeet Jena (thanks to @thepuccacritic for this info). My favourite from the album is another Arijit Singh song – the title song where the man proves yet again in spectacular fashion what he is capable of when utilised properly, while receiving great backing from Mani Mahadevan, Ravi Mishra and Arshad Mohammed. Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s folk-infused sound invokes a hinterland-ish vibe that perfectly suits Gulzar’s words that speak of challenges and sacrifices. Tapas Roy and Arshad Khan once again rule the arrangement of the track that is a delightful throwback to Mirzya in some ways (the punctuated use of Agar Dil in particular takes me back to the song Hota Hai).
Raazi. Shankar Ehsaan Loy end their year-long break to produce a gem of a soundtrack with the veteran Gulzar. Wish the soundtrack were longer, but then director Meghna Gulzar’s last film also had a four song soundtrack.
Music Aloud Rating: 4/5
This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.
Musician Credits
Song – Ae Watan
Singer – Arijit Singh
Chorus – Mani Mahadevan, Ravi Mishra, Binaya Mohanty, Arun Kamath & Arshad Mohammed
Music Composer – Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Lyrics – Gulzar
Co-Produced by Tubby
Song – Dilbaro
Singers – Harshdeep Kaur, Vibha Saraf & Shankar Mahadevan
Chorus – Ravi Mishra & Arshad Mohammed
Music Composer – Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Lyrics – Gulzar
Rabab/Dotara – Tapas Roy
Esraj – Arshad Khan
Live Rhythm & Percussion Conducted by Dipesh Varma
Percussions Performed by Dipesh Varma & Satyajit Jamsandekar
Song – Raazi
Singer – Arijit Singh
Chorus – Mani Mahadevan, Ravi Mishra & Arshad Mohammed
Music Composer – Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Lyrics – Gulzar
Bouzouki/Mandolin – Tapas Roy
Esraj – Arshad Khan
Song – Ae Watan (Female)
Singer – Sunidhi Chauhan
Music Composer – Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Lyrics – Gulzar & Allama Iqbal
The Shankar Mahadevan Academy Childrens Chorus – Soham Vavekar, Advait Raman Shankar, Tanirika Chakraborty, Vasudha Tiwari, Ananya Halarnkar, Tejas Tambe, Ghazal Javed, Archana Hegdekar & Satyajeet Jena
Rabab/Mandolin – Tapas Roy
Live Rhythm & Percussion Conducted by Dipesh Varma
Percussions Performed by Dipesh Varma & Shikhar Naad Qureshi
