Possibly in view of the trying times he has had these recent years, Sanjay Dutt lends his voice to two devotional songs in his forthcoming film Bhoomi ’s soundtrack. First of those – the traditional Ganesh Aarti – is unremarkable, predictably structured by Aditya Dev, building towards a climactic finish. On top of that Dutt’s voice is annoyingly processed to make it sound tuneful. Composer duo Sachin-Jigar’s ‘Jai Mata Di’ is slightly better, though that too fails to rise above its functional value despite Ajay Gogavale leading the vocals on this one.
For a horrific moment, I thought the makers had decided to remix ‘Lag Ja Gale’ going by the title of one of the songs in the album. Thankfully, other than the title, the Bhoomi song has nothing in common with the Madan Mohan-Raja Mehdi Ali Khan classic from Woh Kaun Thi? (1964). In fact, this one is just a standard filmi Sufi track made more tedious by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan’s familiar rendition. I loved the folkish edge in Dilshad Khan’s sarangi solos though. Then another ennui-inducing track is the melancholic ‘Daag’ , sung by Sukhwinder Singh.
Thankfully, Sachin-Jigar make amends in the other three tracks, of which two are dance numbers. ‘Trippy Trippy’ lives up to its name thanks to the composers’ wacky arrangement with Neha Kakkar’s sparkling vocals, even as lyricist Priya Saraiya pens an apt fun combo of English, Hindi and Bhojpuri lines. Anvita Dutt writes the Punjabi-English mix of ‘Will You Marry Me?’ that is delivered with élan by Jonita Gandhi and Divya Kumar. While the latter half of Sachin-Jigar got one of the top songs in Simran , it is Sachin Sanghvi who delivers Bhoomi ’s best: the beautiful semi-classical piece called ‘Kho Diya’ . The song might have worked better with a more accomplished singer, but the composer does well in conveying its soulfulness.
All in all, simply average.
Vipin Nair writes about music on MusicAloud.com and curates music on Apple Music as MusicAloud
