‘Maayaavi Penne’
Bayam Oru Payanam (Tamil)
Music: Y. R. Prasad
Call it coincidence but there’s a lot of name repetition in the crew list of Bayam Oru Payanam . The film’s director is Manisharma. The film’s composer, Y.R. Prasad, is supposedly music composer Mani Sharma’s cousin. That actually explains why the soundtrack’s best, ‘Maayaavi Penne’, sounds just like a classic Mani Sharma melody. Sung by Haricharan and Saindhavi to a sonorous rhythm, the tune is a surprising addition to a horror film’s soundtrack.
‘Kaala Chashma’
Baar Baar Dekho (Hindi)
Music: Prem Hardeep
It’s the trusted Bollywood hit formula—take an existing Punjabi song, add an ounce of Badshah to the mix, and you have a earworm that the kids are dancing to. The latest is the 2000 hit ‘Kaala Chashma’, composed by Prem Hardeep and sung by Amar Arshi. Badshah recreates it without losing any of the original’s foot-tapping charm and the result is something highly infectious. Neha Kakkar, in particular, is in scorching form singing this one.
‘Khair Mangda’
A Flying Jatt (Hindi)
Music: Sachin-Jigar
Sachin-Jigar had ‘Chunar’ in ABCD 2 , a deeply raaga-set melody that used Ahir Bhairav to beautiful effect. ‘Khair Mangda’, if you go by most comments for it on YouTube, is alleged to be similar to ‘Chunar’. But, ‘Khair Mangda’, with its involving tune, seems more Charukesi than Ahir Bhairav. Atif Aslam gives his best to the melody and aces it. For their part, Sachin and Jigar keep the backgrounds to an appropriately haunting minimum, to let the tune shine through in all its beauty.
‘Hogi Baa Belake’
Neerdose (Kannada)
Music: Anoop Seelin
For a Jaggesh-starrer, it is a massive surprise when ‘Hogi Baa Belake’ starts with Gangubai Hangal’s alaap. Composer Anoop Seelin is supposed to have sought permission to use the alaap from the classical musician’s grandson, and makes excellent use of the opportunity. He also sings the main song himself with occasional missteps, but his Puriya Dhanashree-based tune keeps him in good stead.
‘Saanwara’
Sanjay Divecha and Secret (Indipop)
The Meera bhajan ‘Saanwara Re Mari Preet Nibhajo Ji’ is much more popular in Lata Mangeshkar’s vocals set to a composition by Hridaynath Mangeshkar. What Sanjay Divecha and his band do here is to use a lesser-known, gorgeous Rajasthani-style Maand-raaga composition by Pandit Govind Prasad Jaipurwale, and hand it over to singer Chandana Bala to pull off a slow-burner that is lush and indulgent. Sanjay also pulls off a Clapton-esque guitar backdrop that sounds almost like ‘Wonderful Tonight’ at places —some inventive mix, this.
