Songs and complete musician credits at the end.
Bandish Bandits’ premise appears to be that of a pop singer meeting and collaborating with a classical singer. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the 11-song soundtrack features songs from both ends of the spectrum and fusion pieces that fall along the way. I shall cover the songs in that order, since incidentally that is also pretty much the order in which they worked for me.
Mastiyapa, sung by Jonita Gandhi, is likely to remind you of Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s party songs from the past, dating as far back as It’s the Time to Disco. Not the only track from the album to carry echoes of the trio’s past compositions, but that of course does not make the songs any less enjoyable. Wonder if Gandhi is the musical voice of the lady protagonist from the series, given that she is the only female voice in the album, aside of Pratibha Singh Baghel in one song. That one song is Chedkhaaniyaan (the umpteenth “–iyaan” song to come out of Bollywood in recent years) that has Baghel and Shivam Mahadevan behind the mic, and twosome have little difficulty dispatching this frothy romantic piece in style. Armaan Malik joins Jonita Gandhi for Couple Goals where the fusion elements start showing up more prominently, both in the arrangement and the melody. Very pleasant composition (shades of mohanam raga, I feel) that is delivered beautifully by the two singers. And Sajan Bin is the album’s proper “fusion” song – Jonita Gandhi’s pulsating pop segment punctuated by Shivam Mahadevan’s classical-flavoured Sajan Bin segment. Hearing Mahadevan sing classical was one of the things I was most looking forward to in the album, and boy does he ace this – having been a staunch believer that his singing is more aligned to his father’s, it is gladdening to see that become more and more true as he grows older. A bit bummed that his portions do not extend beyond that verse however, and that he does not feature in any of the other classical songs of the album. The series’ theme song too has a fusion aspect to it, though it is too short to stick. Mame Khan’s soaring rendition that opens the song is a pleasant throwback to SEL’s stellar Mirzya, though.
The rest of the album pretty much eschews the pop side of things. Javed Ali is in fine form conveying the pain in Sameer Samant’s lines in Labb Par Aaye that is presented like a qawwali, even though the song itself is a bit bogged down by a dated-sounding tune. The arrangement is fab however, highlighted by the harmonium and tabla. SEL’s presentation of the Rajasthani folk song Padhaaro Mhaare Des has a piano layer underlying the arrangement, but largely sticks to its roots, retaining the original melody as well in the process. Shankar Mahadevan delivers this one in flawless fashion. While Shivam Mahadevan is missing from the classical-heavy songs, his father does more than make up for it with his own towering presence in two of the three such compositions, all of which are my favourites from the album. You can literally feel the Virah in Shankar Mahadevan’s sublime rendition of the melancholic track that the composers adorn with a fittingly understated backdrop as well. Love how the rang rang refrain by the singer is used as a chorus layer throughout the song. Man is equally splendid in Dhara Hogi (brindavana saranga the raga, I am guessing) which sits smack dab in the Mirzya zone, with its folksy orchestration. Mahadevan’s singing is replete with trademark improvisational bits throughout – one of the best things about the song is its rhythm-shift from the seven beat cycle in the first half to eight beats as the song’s mood switches from expectation to jubilation, leading to the song’s closure in a beautiful profusion of violins, percussions and taranas. The final song, Garaj Garaj, is also set to the rain theme, as evident from the title, and comes in two versions. The shorter version features Pt. Ajoy Chakraborty and Javed Ali (though I could not discern the latter’s voice anywhere), and the former sounds spectacular with his nuanced rendition – a pity this one is just over two and a half minutes. The seemingly mian ki malhar raga-based song also features some fine sitar solos from Bhagirath Bhatt. Although Chakraborty is not featured in the Jugalbandi version of the song, it does surely compensate for the length of the original version with two other exceptional singers – Farid Hasan and Mohammed Aman. The fact that they are playing off each other adds to the beauty of the song, and the icing on the cake are the final two minutes of the song where the composers let the singers go to town with their improvisations!
If you have seen Shankar Mahadevan perform classical/fusion, or heard Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s classical-based works in the past, you know that there is nobody else in the industry as well-equipped as they are, to pull off a soundtrack of this kind. And though Bandish Bandits isn’t the best the trio have done on this scale, it still is a solid piece of work. Glad to have gotten to review two classical-based soundtracks in a span of two weeks, both incidentally composed for web series!
Music Aloud Rating: 3.5/5
Top Recos: Virah, Dhara Hogi, Garaj Garaj (both versions), Sajan Bin
Musician Credits
Song – Sajan Bin
Composer – Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Singers – Shivam Mahadevan & Jonita Gandhi
Lyrics – Divyanshu Malhotra
Song – Chedkhaniyaan
Music – Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Singers – Shivam Mahadevan & Pratibha Singh Baghel
Lyrics – Tanishk S Nabar
Music Arrangements – Aditya V. Oke
Music Programming – Amit Padhye
Classical Music Coordination – Aditya V. Oke
Song – Couple Goals
Music – Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Singers – Armaan Malik & Jonita Gandhi
Lyrics – Tanishk S Nabar
Song – Labb Par Aaye
Music – Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Singer – Javed Ali
Lyrics – Sameer Samant
Song – Virah
Music – Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Singer – Shankar Mahadevan
Lyrics – Sameer Samant
Song – Dhara Hogi
Music – Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Singer – Shankar Mahadevan
Lyrics – Sameer Samant
Song – Garaj Garaj Jugalbandi
Music – Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Singers – Farid Hasan & Mohammed Aman
Lyrics – Sameer Samant
Song – Mastiyaapa
Music – Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Singer – Jonita Gandhi
Lyrics – Tanishk S Nabar
Music Arrangements – Aditya V. Oke
Music Programming – Amit Padhye
Classical Music Coordination – Aditya V. Oke
Song – Garaj Garaj
Music – Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Singers – Pt. Ajoy Chakraborty & Javed Ali
Lyrics – Sameer Samant
Song – Padharo Maare Des
Music – Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Singer – Shankar Mahadevan
Lyrics – Traditional
Song – Bandish Bandits Theme
Music – Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Singer – Shankar Mahadevan
Lyrics – Traditional
Music Arrangements – Aditya V. Oke
Music Programming – Amit Padhye
Classical Music Coordination – Aditya V. Oke
RECORDING SUPERVISORS
Aditya Oke and Amit Padhye
SINGERS – MUSICAL ID’s
Shantanu Herlekar
Ravi Mishra
Siddhesh Jadhav
Omkar Dadarkar
Akshat Parikh
Meghana Desai
Anand Oak
Aniket Jadhav
Savani Parekar
Soham Pathak
Alyssa Mendonsa
Dhananjay Mhaskar
MUSIC ARRANGEMENTS
Aditya Oke
MUSIC PRODUCTION
Amit Padhye, DAWgeek
CLASSICAL MUSIC COORDINATION
Aditya Oke
TABLA
Vinayak Netke
Krishna Musale
Prasad Joshi
Prasad Padhye
Sandesh Kadam
Siddharth Padiyar
Rakshanand Panchal
PAKHAWAJ
Krishna Musale
Pranav Dandekar
Prasad Joshi
DHOLAK
Bhimrao Mohite
Prabhakar Mosamkar
Krishna Musale
Sandesh Kadam
DUFF
Bhimrao Mohite
Prabhakar Mosamkar
HAND AND STICK DHOL
Bhimrao Mohite
Prabhakar Mosamkar
TRASH CANS
Bhimrao Mohite
Prabhakar Mosamkar
CHANDA
Bhimrao Mohite
Prabhakar Mosamkar
GUITAR
Shon Pinto
HARMONIUM
Aditya Oke
Amit Padhye
SARANGI
Sandeep Mishra
Sangeet Mishra
SITAR
Bhagirath Bhatt
SAROD
Sarang Kulkarni
VIOLIN
Shruti Bhave
Manas Kumar
SWARLIN
Mahesh Khanolkar
CHORUS
Umesh Joshi
Amit Padhye
Dhananjay Mhaskar
Ravi Mishra
PADHANT
Amit Padhye
SONGS IN MUSIC ID’S
Traditional
Late Pt.Ram Marathe
Pt. Murli Manohar Shukl
RECORDING
YRF Studios- Vijay Dayal, Chinmay Mestry
Audioarts – Ganesh Pokale
Harmony Studio – Vivek Kambli, Abhishek Dandekar
Aajiwasan Sounds – Avdhoot Wadkar
Sahana Studios – Ameya Mategaonkar
Purple Haze Studios – Abhay Rumde and Sreejith Padmakumar
Feather Touch Studios- Shubham Joshi
SONGS MIXED BY
Title Song, Sajan Bin, Chedkhaniyaan & Mastiyapaa
by DAWgeek
Sunta Hai Gurugyani, Sandhya Song, Dhara Hogi, Tarana, Padharo Mare Des, Virah & Jugalbandi
mixed by Vijay Dayal at YRF Studios assisted by Chinmay Mestry
Garaj Garaj & Labb Par mixed by Ganesh Pokale at Audio Arts
All Musical ID’s mixed by Abhay Rumde assisted by Sreejith Padmakumar at Purple Haze Studios
Album Mastered by Vijay Dayal & Chinmay Mestry at YRF Studios
BACKGROUND SCORE
Soumil Shringarpure
