Songs and musician credits at the end.
This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.
There has been an interesting recurrence of curious phrases (well, curious at least to me since those songs happen to be my introduction to the particular phrase) across Gulzar songs in recent times. There was udan khatola that appeared in OK Jaanu (Sunn Bhavara) and Rangoon (Mere Miyan Gaye England), good man di laltain across Rangoon (Bloody Hell) and Soorma (Good Man Di Laltain). In The Sky Is Pink – the second full soundtrack that the veteran lyricist collaborates with Pritam on (the first was Just Married, back in 2007, and there was a partial collaboration in Billu) – Dil Hi Toh Hai carries one such throwback, of the word khurpech, that I first heard at the start of the title song of Raazi last year (both times accompanying “path”, incidentally – yeh kooche khurpech hain vs khurpech hain raahein; @adipant tells me it means full of twists and turns). Like Raazi, this one too features Arijit Singh (alongside Antara Mitra and Nikhil D’Souza) though Dil Hi Toh Hai carries a totally different mood. A pleasantly hummable romantic piece that you can instantly identify as a Pritam composition, delivered well by the singers, with a fine chorus to boot. When Arijit sings “na poochho yeh dil hai munshi, magistrate, qazi”, my mind goes back to a metaphor from another Pritam song (written by Amitabh Bhattacharya though), dil akbar ka pota hai. Arijit is replaced by an equally competent Sreerama Chandra in the reprise version (aah, Pritam and his reprises). The English cameo by Nikhil D’Souza (loved that bit, with the harmonies et al – very gospel; too short though) has lyrics written by a name from the Pritam camp I haven’t seen in a while – Nikhil Paul George; and as usual the man also handles the guitar, aside of the choir arrangement, the song’s two highlights.
The phrase naadaaniyaan is uttered way too many times for my liking in the first verse of Naadaaniyaan, but that aside it is an engaging club song. Arjun Kanungo is in fine form leading the delivery, although I wish there was more of Lisa Mishra as well, and not just the two-line cameo she gets here. In Pink Gulabi Sky Pritam channels his Badtameez Dil mode, but accentuating the enjoyability of the original format is the delightful retro swing layer that the composer incorporates here. While most of brass elements (and that lovely double bass) come from Fame’s Macedonia Symphonic Orchestra, there is also some fab work from Rhythm Shaw on guitar and Shirish Malhotra on flute and clarinet. With Shashwat Singh and Jonita Gandhi handling the vocals, there was never going to be a shortcoming on that front. My favourite song from the album is a solo act by Arijit Singh. Zindagi has a beautiful melody – almost feels like a ghazal at times, though the orchestration implies nothing of that sort. Love that opening line from Gulzar – zindagi tune kaisa toss khela hai. The vocalisation here, especially the processing around the humming portions, takes my mind back to another gem that Pritam-Arijit gave us a few years back, Phir Le Aaya Dil.
The Sky Is Pink. Pritam-Gulzar’s soundtrack traverses familiar territories, but is an eminently enjoyable soundtrack – the best that the composer has done this year thus far.
Music Aloud Rating: 3.5/5
Top Recos: Zindagi, Pink Gulabi Sky, Dil Hi Toh Hai
Musician Credits
Music: Pritam
Lyrics: Gulzar
Sound Design & Chief Sound Engineer: Ashwin Kulkarni
Music Production Manager: Anurag Sharma
Vocal Production: Tushar Joshi
Arijit Singh (Dil Hi Toh Hai & Zindagi)
Akashdeep Sengupta
Antara Mitra
Recording Engineers
Aaroh Velankar
Himanshu Shirlekar
Aniruddh Anantha
Harjot Kaur
Scratch Lyrics: Shloke Lal
Songs Premixed By Ashwin Kulkarni
Mix & Mastered By Eric Pillai At Future Sound Of Bombay
Mixing Assistant To Eric Pillai – Michael Edwin Pillai
1. Dil Hi Toh Hai
Singers – Arijit Singh & Antara Mitra
Additional Vocals – Nikhil D’souza
Music Programmed And Arranged – Sunny M.R.
Guitars – Nikhil Paul George
Bass – Zafar Ansari & Sunny M.R.
Choir Lyrics (English) – Nikhil Paul George
Choir Arranged And Produced – Nikhil Paul George
Chorus
Sopranos – Debi Selby & Camesia Wilson
Altos – San Franklin & Kimberly Mont
Tenors – W Cersle Kenan Ii & Aj Welis
Recording Engineer At Arijit’s Studio – Sukanto Singha
2. Nadaaniyaan
Singers – Arjun Kanungo & Lisa Mishra
Music Programmed And Arranged – Sourav Roy
Guitars – Aditya Shankar Benia
3. Zindagi
Singer – Arijit Singh
Music Programmed And Arranged – Prasad Sashte
Guitars – Warren Mendonsa
Additional Guitars – Tushar Joshi
Harmonium – Arijit Singh
Recording Engineer At Arijit’s Studio – Sukanto Singha
4. Pink Gulabi Sky
Singers – Shashwat Singh & Jonita Gandhi
Music Produced And Arranged – Meghdeep Bose
Additional Programming – Qaran Mehta
Piano – Gulraj Singh
Guitars – Rhythm Shaw
Clarinet & Flute – Shirish Malhotra
Brass – Fame’s Macedonian Symphonic Orchestra
1st Trumpet – Dragancho Ristevski
2nd Trumpet – Senad Usein
1st Trombone – Aleksandar Bencic
2nd Trombone – Sasho Nikolovski
Bass Trombone – Ivan Platner
Tuba – Milosh Budimirov
Double Bass – Ivan Bejkov
Tenor, Baritone Saxophones (Performed And Recorded By) Chris Whiter In London, Uk.
Orchestrated By Dzijan Emin & Chris Whiter
Orchestra And Orchestration Admin – Andrew T Mackay (Bohemia Junction Ltd)
Recording Engineer (Skopje) – Alen Hadzi Stefanov
Pro Tools Operators – Igor Vasilev, Hanish Taneja
Stage Managers (Skopje) – Riste Trajkovski – Ilija Grkovski
Harmonies Designed – Dj Phukan, Tushar Joshi & Meghdeep Bose
Chorus – Harjot Kaur, Ana Rehman, Shreya Phukan, Nikita Ahuja, Ashwin Kulkarni, Anurag Sharma, Aniruddh Anantha And Akashdeep Sengupta
Meghdeep’s Assistant – Priyanshu Soni
5. Dil Hi Toh Hai (Reprise)
Singers – Sreerama Chandra & Antara Mitra
Additional Vocals – Nikhil D’souza
Music Programmed And Arranged – Sunny M.R.
Guitars – Nikhil Paul George
Bass – Zafar Ansari & Sunny M.R.
Choir Lyrics (English) – Nikhil Paul George
Choir Arranged And Produced – Nikhil Paul George
Chorus
Sopranos – Debi Selby & Camesia Wilson
Altos – San Franklin & Kimberly Mont
Tenors – W Cersle Kenan Ii & Aj Welis
Presentation Members
Rahul Tiwari (Keyboard)
Shubham Shirule (Multi Percussions & Programming)
Ishteyak Khan (Tabla & Dholak)
Mustak Khan (Tabla & Dholak)
