NH10 Music Review

“NH7 stuff”

 

Music: Sanjeev Darshan/ Bann Chakraborty/ Ayush Shrestha, Savera Mehta/ Samira Koppikar

Lyrics: Kumaar/ Bann Chakraborty & Abhiruchi Chand/ Manoj Tapadia/ Neeraj Rajawat/ Varun Grover

Ratings: ***

1. Chhil Gaye Naina

Chhil Gaye Naina’s title hook is tiring and tepid despite of all its energy. Repetitive and short, the track tries to redeem in Dipanshu Pandit’s part in the antara. Kanika Kapoor, whom we have heard only in item numbers, is an interesting choice to lead such song.

2. Le Chal Mujhe (Male & Female)

Le Chal Mujhe is essentially a blues track, with splendid laidback arrangement, of which the Female version, by Shipa Rao, supersedes Mohit Chauhan’s Male version by measures. Rao’s voice flows along and rides on the wavy tune to sway you off completely, while Chauhan in his version is completely disconcerting the track’s softness. And it is the composer (Chakraborty) to be blamed for that.

3. Main Jo

Main Jo sounds like a Mickey McCleary song in its arrangement, mildly saccharine and sedative with those country-like guitars, mouth-organ and saxophone. Debutante Nayantara Bhatkal’s husky voice goes well with the song, and the co-composer Savera Mehta makes a Mithoon’ish cameo.

4. Khoney De

Khoney De is a jazzy variant of Le Chal Mujhe in which Mohit Chauhan is again hard on vocals and Neeti Mohan sails though smoothly.

Its instrumental version works because of its haunting tune on the jazzy template.

5. Maati Ka Palang

Maati Ka Palang is a fusion of folk and rock, though not that neat, that defines the indie-spirit of this album. Samira Koppikar’s voice texture- edgy and rustic- is a great suit for such songs, but you need more than just texture to overpower or even blend through a song that has sitar and guitar fused together with drums.

6. Kya Karein

Rachel Varghese’s shivering and quivering vocals in Kya Karein is perhaps to portray the voice of an assaulted victim. It’s the immersive violins that ooze the required emotions for this song.

7. Le Chal Mujhe (Reprise)

Arijit corrects everything that had been done wrong by Mohit Chauhan in the male version of this hauntingly beautiful composition. Though the mellowed down reprise arrangement works in favour for him, he does nuanced variations that completely makes this song his own.

Of 4 composers, Bann Chakraborty composed only one piece which he churned out as 5 tracks in this 9 track album. It is great to see Bollywood turning to indie artists for soundtracks and they deliver with the same spirit as they do it for NH7 gigs!