Just two weeks into the release of Meghna Gulzar’s Raazi , we have another film with patriotism at its core — Abhishek Sharma’s Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran . While Raazi has won critical acclaim both as a film and for its soundtrack; we will have to wait till May 25 to see how Parmanu fares at the box office, but for now – the music.
Chances are, you won’t not have to look at the credits to figure out which song in Parmanu ’s soundtrack has been composed by Jeet Gannguli — not a compliment to the musician. Written by Rashmi Virag, ‘ Jitni Dafa ’ is set to that melancholic melody-arrangement template that has been done to death and then some more in Bollywood, primarily in the Bhatt/Mohit Suri line of movies. It is a small mercy that Arijit Singh isn’t singing this one, but the singer Yasser Desai appears to be emulating him. Desai gets one more song in the album with lead composers Sachin Jigar, another wistful and romantic, but happier sounding piece called ‘ De De Jagah ’. Apart from the fact that the singer sounds like Singh here as well (the resemblance feels stronger), and that the song is penned by poet-turned-politician Kumar Vishwas, there’s nothing of interest going in the composition. Sachin Sanghvi from the composing duo writes the album’s third romantic track, ‘Sapna’ , the best among the three. This one, for a change, is rendered by real Arijit Singh himself, weirdly does not sound quite like himself here! It’s a nice number with Sanghvi’s with well-crafted lyrics and Sachin Jigar’s soothing melody. The arrangement sees a pleasant interplay between Dilshad Khan’s sarangi, Tejas Vinchurkar’s flute and Rinku Rajput’s piano. The composers borrow a riff from ‘ Maana Ke Hum Yaar Nahi’ ( Meri Pyaari Bindu ) to produce one of the song’s prominent instrumental refrains.
For the other half of the soundtrack, the composers join hands with lyricist Vayu to produce three songs that convey the movie’s central theme, while imbibing the folk musical flavour of Rajasthan. ‘ Shubh Din ’s celebratory vibe is a familiar one (in fact when the song pauses for a couple of seconds in the first verse before the Aayo Re hook, the mind automatically started humming Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo !), but gains from Jyotica Tangri and Keerthi Sagathia’s vocal prowess. ‘ Thare Vaste ’, while trying to be motivational, again via tried and tested routes, has an engaging folksy melody going for it, one that Divya Kumar delivers with soulful exuberance. Kumar also sings the soundtrack’s best track, ‘ Kasumbi ’ in a splendid fashion. ‘Kasumbi Rang’ in Gujarati appears to have a patriotic implication akin to ‘Rang de Basanti’ ; and the composers provide a frenzied revolutionary ambience (hat tip to the innovative use of Omkar Dhumal’s shehnai here) to Vayu’s lyrics here – the only oddity being the use of the Gujarati phrase amidst Punjabi lyrics. The album is a middling start to the year for Sachin Jigar.
