Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Music: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Lyrics: A.M. Turaz and Vibhu Puri
Starring: Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Monikangana Dutta, Rajit Kapoor and Shernaz Patel
I must say, finally there is a sound track which made me sit and listen to the nuances of the fine poetry and intrinsically laced music, after a long time. Take my verdict; it’s going to be one of the finest soundtracks of Bollywood ever. Before I get in to the beauty of each track let me give you an introduction to the amazing music of Guzaarish.
Is music all about ragas and notes? Nope, music needs to have soul. Being able to appreciate good music itself is a big virtue; you are blessed just with that ability. These days music has become all about sounds, lacking soul and aesthetics. Having good taste in books, art, dance and all other things can enhance one’s ability to enjoy good music. Being a great director himself Sanjay sir could exert the same brilliance in his music as well. The tunes are as simple as it gets; yet the final outcome is nothing less than magic.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali is a great director, at least as far as the aesthetics go. He is a multifaceted artist. We have seen that he’s got such a good taste in beauty in general. Look at his films, his larger than life sets, beautiful dress and styling, the unforgettable songs and dances. We even heard that he choreographed a song for 1942: A Love Story when he was an assistant director. In short, he was good in whatever he did. However, I wasn’t very sure when I heard that he composed the songs of Guzaarish; I thought it was his insistence to try out everything (yeah, sometimes some creative persons believe that they are really good in everything… which is far from truth in most cases, I must say). I also knew that he was instrumental in extracting good music from Jatin Lalit, Ismail darbar and Monty Sharma in the past. But this wasn’t enough to convince me that he could be a good music director.
Vishal Bharadwaj is another great music director cum director, and Sanjay Leela Bhansali joins the league of the successful music-director-cum-directors list with Guzaarish. Like I said the tunes are simple, but there are other elements which take this into another level. There are few average tunes, but the arrangement, the sheer passion and the classic touch make them special.
On the merit of their lyrics and music, I’m going to award points to each of these 10 tracks and start from the 10th track.
10) Jaane Kiske Khwaab (7.5/10)
Singer: K.K
This track carries the mellow mood of the film. However, there is nothing much to go gaga about this track.
9) Daayein Baayein (7.8/10)
Singer: K.K
This song reminds us of K.K’s songs in Kites. It’s one of the positive songs in the album with happy disposition. Though the tune is nothing extra ordinary the arrangement makes it a good track. Guitar is used in a really beautiful way throughout the song.
8 ) Chaand Ki Katori (8.2/10)
Singer: Harshdeep Kaur
Yes, indeed a beautiful track. There is this melancholy mood throughout in this composition. It must be appreciated that Bhansali kept minimal instruments here.
7)Udi Udi(8.3/10)
Singers: Sunidhi Chauhan and Shail Hada
Well, this song has already become a chart bustor since the song promo was out weeks ago featuring Aishwarya Rai dancing to the beautiful tune. We have also seen the making of the song where Sanjay Leela Bhansali composed the tune on the sets. The whole arrangement of the song is western. It is a good groovy number.
6)Keh Na Saku (8.4/10)
Singer: Shail Hada
From this song onwards the album gets into very rare yet beautiful music arena. The lyric is painfully romantic reminding us of old Mohammad Rafi numbers. Shail Hada!! What a voice!! Well, he sang the title song of Saawariya. But this time he rules this album even surpassing the seasoned singer like K.K. The piano arrangement is really worth mentioning.
5) Guzaarish (8.5/10)
Singers: K.K and Shail Hada
The title song has an old world charm as far as the instruments go. K.K is really soothing to the ears in this slow number. Shail Hada provides ample support and the violin bit!! Fantastic!! The dialogues in the background add to the overall appeal of the song.
4) Dhundhli Dhundhli (8.7/10)
Singer: Shankar Mahadevan
Before anything, fantastic arrangement!! This song reminded me of A.R.Rahman’s ‘Jaage Hai’ from GURU. Heart wrenching violin, once again!! Shankar Mahadevan is top-notch adding pathos to this beautifully orchestrated song. It also has a resemblance to the fantastic score of 1942: A Love Story.
3) Sau Gram Zindagi (8.8/10)
Singers: Kunal Ganjawala
Well, this is one of the most innovative songs in the recent times, though the tune is very Indian and has taken inspiration from many other songs; the orchestration is out of this world!! Beautiful lyrics too. The way the song progresses to the finale is really brilliant. Yes, the finale will take your breath way!! It falls into soft rock mode towards the finale and you’ll end up dancing to the beautiful music! Very well done Sanjay Leela Bhansali Sir!! A master creation and Kunal Ganjawala lived up to the beauty of the song.
2) Saiba (8.9/10)
Singers: Vibhavari Joshi, Francois Castellino & Shail Hada
Well, amazing song. I wonder Bollywood has ever tried latin style this beautifully before. You will instantly fall in love with 2 things in this song, the guitar portion and Vibhavari’s voice. It’s difficult not to start gyrating your body to the slow yet charming tune. After a point you would wish if this song never ended!
And here comes the winner
1) Tera Zikr (9/10)
Singers: Shail Hada & Rakesh Pandit
Though Sanjay Leela Bhansali arranged the songs mostly in western style, how can he forget classical Indian touch? Yes, he makes up for that with this song. Well, no other male singer could create such a lasting impression in the recent times, Shail Hada is amazingly talented. Also, the song sounded very original to me, I don’t remember hearing anything this unique for a long time. The deep spiritual touch will touch you instantly. This song is capable of taking you to a completely different world for few moments. The beauty of Sufi style is all over it and there is something magical about this song. Bhansali combined many intrinsic elements very cleverly in this song making it an instant winner! This song is very Indian and it invokes many beautiful feelings throughout. Nothing less than magical!!
Overall great album; the outstanding numbers are Sau Gram Zindagi, Saiba and Tera Zikr. Very well done Sanjay Sir. Really, I wasn’t expecting this…
Overall rating 8.4/10
