‘Chiryan Da Chamba’
Suraiya Khanum and Anwar Maqsood
Coke Studio Pakistan (Season 8)
‘Chiryan Da Chamba’ is a classic Punjabi bidai song (sung when the bride leaves her home after marriage) that has been sung by the who's who of the subcontinent, including Noor Jehan, Arif Lohar, Runa Laila, Musarrat Nazeer and Shazia Manzoor, among others. The new season of Coke Studio has Suraiya Khanum attempting her version and she is mesmerising in her rendition of the pathos-laden tune. The highlight, however, is Anwar Maqsood (father of Bilal Maqsood of Strings-fame) and his incredibly heartfelt recitation of a girl's letter to her father on how she misses home. This is emotionally touching folk music at its best.
‘Khuda Mere’
Shukriya (Hindi)
Shraddha Shree, feat. music by Gulraj Singh
Shraddha Shree (and Shivam Ahuja) are winners of a singing contest conducted by an Insurance company and the smartest thing —insurance, if you will— that the organisers equipped the kids with is the choice of music composer for their debut album. That happens to be the severely underrated Gulraj Singh, and his regular partner for lyrics, Manoj Yadav. Together, the duo hand the kids a fantastic set of tunes that treat them as adults in a competitive world. ‘Khuda Mere’ is a great example of this — a wonderfully flamboyant tune young Shraddha devours gleefully. It compares with any multi-layered film song, and the song's reprise version goes one up on the original too.
‘Aana Oona’
Andhra Mess (Tamil)
Music: Prashant Pillai
Prashant Pillai — at least technically — made his Tamil debut with Bejoy Nambiar's David in 2013, though it was a multi-composer album. Now, he makes his solo Tamil debut with Andhra Mess . While the overall soundtrack is rather tepid, he has a standout song in ‘Aana Oona’. It's sung with verve by another composer Amrit Rao, of Live Banned fame, who is also composing for Gitanjali Selvaraghavan's debut, Maalai Naerathu Mayakkam . Prashant, in his inimitable style, loads the song with a funky, racy sound that centers on an addictive ‘ Na na na’ chorus, escaping genre-classification, while still remaining intriguingly catchy.
‘Endaro’
Bhale Bhale Magadivoy (Telugu)
Music: Gopi Sundar
Now, many composers have attempted fusion variants of classical Carnatic kritis and traditional songs in films, with or without playing with the source tune. A.R. Rahman's ‘Alaipayuthey’ (from Mani Ratnam's film of the same name) is a goodexample. Some composers took generous liberties, bringing in their unique stamp on their recreations, like Vidyasagar's Entharo , in the Malayalam film Devadoothan and Sandeep Chowta's ‘Bhagyada Laxmi Baramma’, from the pop album Mitti . Gopi's recreation is less ambitious and sticks faithfully to Thyagaraja's iconic Sri Ragam based kriti, but his nuances and choice of singer — Renuka Arun — elevates the song to a new level. He treats it like a classic rock song, with drums and violin dominating impressively, even as Renuka is in scintillating form bringing classical chops to what is treated as a complex, contemporary pop song.
‘Vasoottan’
Jamna Pyari (Malayalam)
Music: Gopi Sundar
Gopi Sundar is the man of the moment, moving across Andhra Pradesh and Kerala with consummate ease. His ‘Vasoottan’ is an instantly catchy song featuring Franco's thoroughly enjoyable vocals featuring a Thrissur dialect. It does start with a musical phrase that seems to echo A.R. Rahman's Rangeela number, ‘Yayi Re’, but Gopi owns the charming tune eventually.
