“Yuvvraaj” Music Review – A R Rahman

As I sit and write this review I am wondering what exactly do I like in music from ARR, and why do I look forward to listening to it so much? So, here are a few reasons why I look forward and listen to music of ARR:

- It is always original, creative and offers loads of variety…
- There are so many layers in the music that you can keep listening to the songs for a very long span of time and still hear something new every time you hear them…
- Extremely good use of traditional instruments like flute (Bombay), shehnaai (Swades, Duet) etc. fused with western instruments…
- Only time I get to hear ARR’s voice is in his own albums, the voice that I absolutely love. I think he is perhaps the most underrated and one of the best singer in the industry. If you closely listen to some of his soundtracks, you will find atleast one song where he does an alaap, which just takes the song to another level (like in Dil hai chota sa – Roja, Kabhi neem-neem - Yuva, Lukka-chuppi – Rang De Basanti etc.)
- Most of the time I get to hear Sukhwinder Singh’s voice, who forms an amazing combination with ARR. One look back to all the songs they have sung together (like Chaiya-Chaiya – Dil Se, Ramta Jogi - Taal, Ghanan-Ghanan - Lagaan amongst so many others) and you will know what I am talking about…not to say Sukhwinder does not sing well with others, it is just this combination that spells magic…
- He also occasionally brings unconventional voices like Daler Mahendi (RDB), Lucky Ali (Yuva), Kailash Kher (Swedes) Mohit Chauhan from Silk Route (RDB) etc…all of which I love…

Anyway, the point I was trying to make was there are just way too many things to look forward to in his upcoming soundtracks. Also, when ARR and Gulzar came together they created Dil Se, and when ARR and Subhash Ghai came together, they created the unforgettable Taal. Then, it is no surprise, that when all three of them come together more than ample buzz is created. So, I was hoping to have one of the best soundtrack in years come out in form of Yuvvraaj. The only thing slightly underlying in my mind was could this be the case of “Teen-tigaada, Kaam Bigaadaa!!” :-)

Subhash Ghai is known for folksy tunes like ones in Khalnayak, Pardes, Saudagar, Taal, Kisna etc. so I was thinking this would be another one of the folksy album high on Indian music. But apparently this musical movie is based in Austria and Prague so the soundtrack has a high influence from western classical music instead of Indian folk music…it is very different from earlier works from Subhash Ghai and ARR….With that knowledge, I started listening to the album and have listened to it like 30 times before I am finally ready to write this review…

First off is “Mein Hun Yuvvraaj” which is really not a song, just some random garbage in Salman’s voice (Hint: you can sense my love for Salman here… :-) ) with Beethoven’s symphony in the background…don’t care for it…

Then the real soundtrack begins…In comes “Tu Meri Dost Hain”…Beautiful song with high western classical and orchestra influence – this is the one they are using in the movie promos… takes 2-3 hearing to get into it but very-very nice thereafter…Sung by a newcomer Benny Dayal and his voice sounds very soothing in the song…Also, this song has some music in there towards the end that is of one of the following songs called “Tu Muskura”…typical way of Subhash Ghai interweaving multiple songs…

Followed by such a good song is an OK-OK song “Shano-Shano”, typical club dance number – good to hear but nothing exceptional…

Then comes “Tu Muskura”…This song again very high on orchestra and all of it is in high notes….very dreamy feel to the song…nice to hear to, I have heard it many times and only now I can say I really like it…This song is interwoven with the music of “Tu Meri Dost Hai” heard earlier….I just feel if this song has some low notes as well, it would have been great…

Then comes a fun song called “Mastam-Mastam”…Sung mostly by Sonu nigam but again high on chorus and orchestra (by now you must be tired of me reapeating this statement!) but a really fun song…imaginative lyrics from Gulzar like “Bheje mein bhauchaal hai, pairon mein paataal hai”…it kind of reminded me of “tinak-tinak tin taara” from saudagar…Anyway, another thing to note in this song is Alka Yagnik’s voice…it comes towards the middle of the song and she sounds almost like Lata Mangeshkar…I had to double-check to ensure it was not Lata singing…very-very beautiful…this song is a little slow to develop but develops very nicely towards the end and grows on you quite a bit after repeated hearing…quintessential Subhash Ghai song...

Zindagi-Zindagi comes next which is in the mould of Nahin Saamne from Taal…The voice of the singer (Srinivas, I believe) is very similar to Hariharan and he has done justice to the soft song…though, I believe Nahin Saamne was a far superior song…

In comes next my favorite of the album called “Dil Ka Rishta”…Grand orchestra, multiple sargams and absolutely beautiful…towards the middle of the song ARR comes on the mike with his trademark alaap and it just takes the song to a completely new level… the alaap keeps ringing in my head…sheer bliss…again heavy on orchestra/western classical and takes time to grow on you but if you give it time, you won’t be disappointed…

Manmohini morey is next which is a fusion of Indian classical and western beats…nice song but after the dil ka rishta high, this song sounds a little bit low but still a very good song.…you catch on to it in the first hearing itself…they should have placed this song before Dil Ka Rishta in the album and should have ended the album with Dil Ka Rishta…

At the end is “Shano-Shano remix”…useless…did I say I hate remixes! :-)

So, most of the things that I had said about ARR and why I like his music still hold in this album…the one gripe is that there is no full song sung by either ARR or Sukhwinder Singh….But, this is a soundtrack that takes multiple hearings to grow on you…not even 2-3 hearings will do it and I think most people will give up on it after 2-3 hearings…Also, this has none of the folk tunes that has made Subhash Ghai’s music so popular in the past…this is a high-end gourmet product that not everyone will appreciate…. ARR presents here an album that is completely different from what we hear these days but this music is not something the common person will identify too much with… unless you have grown up listening to western classical, it will be difficult to stomach…

Unless the songs are choreographed extraordinarily and the movie is a hit (which I highly doubt given it has Salman and Katrina, Hint: you can sense my love for Salman again here!), the album will be only relished by die-hard ARR fans…aka me…

On a separate note, two other movie’s music that I am waiting for this year are “Ghajini” (Aamir Khan and music by ARR based on memento) and Rab ne bana di jodi (Sharukh and directed by Aditya Chopra who is directing this one after Mohobbatein and DDLJ)

My ratings for the album:

“Use-and-Throw” Value = Very Low (You can listen to it for a long span of time)
“More of the Same” Value = Very Low (You have not heard any of this sound before)
“Mass Appeal” Value = Low-Medium (Will not be very popular, maybe more after movie release)
“Overall” = Very good (Give it time and you will not be disappointed)

Next up will be quick review of music of Fashion, Golmaal Returns and EMI, if I get a chance…until then…