‘Dil Bechara’ signals the entry of an AR Rahman album that strikes a chord during the first listen, a slightly unusual phenomenon for a composer whose works are usually known to “grow on you”.
But that is not to say that the tunes are rank simple. Yes, there is the hummable title track and its faster, peppier cousin in ‘Friendzone’, but the rest are still layered, intricate works.
Take ‘Taare Gin’, a melody in which Shreya Ghoshal breathlessly prances around Mohit Chauhan’s carefree vocals (which, surely, makes a case for a future album on the lines of Rockstar). Or ‘Khulke...’ , an old-fashioned melody that blends Shasha and Arijit Singh’s vocals in a fine musical concoction.
Both these may be called “duets”. But they are not structured like normal ones, in which male and female singers take turns to deliver their lines. Here, the male and female voices are layered on top of each other and we listen to them almost simultaneously, thus making for an exciting listen.
This conversational attitude continues with ‘Mein Tumhara’. The dreaminess of its opening strains hits you in the first listen, and lulls you into a musical intoxication that you don’t ever want to come out of. Hriday Gattani’s vocals captures its soul (someone on social media described his voice strangely as ‘butter biscuit’ and well, we agree). But the feeling does not sustain throughout, with a sense of predictability and repetitiveness — the sort we felt in ‘Aye Sinamika’ in OK Kanmani — seeping in.
‘Dil Bechara’ signals the entry of an AR Rahman album that strikes a chord during the first listen itself
Arabic strains dominate ‘Afreeda’ by Sanaa Moussa and Raja Kumari, a number that is a) much like ‘Khalbali’ ( Rang De Basanti ) and b) meanders quite a bit. One wonders how that will fit in the scheme of things of a love story. With ‘Mera Naam Kizie’, a simple retro-melody ballad by Aditya Narayan and Poorvi Koutish that reminds one of ‘Aye Mr. Minor’ from Kaaviyathalaivan , there is a neat retro touch as it takes you back to the good old-fashioned musical world of Hindi cinema of the past.
Also Read: Get 'First Day First Show', our weekly newsletter from the world of cinema, in your inbox . You can subscribe for free here
The tracks sung by Rahman himself can broadly be classified into three categories — motivational/patriotic such as ‘Nenje Ezhu’ ( Maryan ) and ‘Yeh Jo Des Hai’ ( Swades ), romantic duets like ‘Tere Bina’ ( Guru ) or ‘Neethane’ ( Mersal ), and outright-fun numbers like ‘Columbus’ ( Jeans ).
The title track of ‘Dil Bechara’ and ‘Friendszone’ falls in the third zone, and the singer does have some fun... it helps that there are catchy lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya and the lovely dance steps of Sushant Singh Rajput to go with it.
The fun continues in the playful ‘Maskhari’, with the voices of Hriday Gattani and Sunidhi Chauhan prancing around like the world is full of joy. Watch out for the kanjira roll in the background, and the way the two voices blend. Indeed, there is hardly any fault in the stars here.
