Rangrez - an avant garde composition

[Updated on 6/20 with acknowledgment from Krsna, the composer himself]

Kicking off  this blog with Rahman, I had plans of following it up by covering one of his songs from the movie, Raanjhana. After having spent several hours with the soundtrack, I can safely say that Rahman is nowhere near his best with this one. Period. While I might still get back to it, I cannot resist the temptation to grab this real estate and talk about one of my all time favorite sufi compositions. 

Let's begin by saying that Rangrez is simply brilliant. It's avant garde. This composition is part of a musically loaded soundtrack of  the movie, Tanu Weds Manu. Honestly, with this kind of debut as a music director, Krsna blew many a socks off! In retrospect, the kind of composition Rangrez is, it couldn't have been done as yet-another-Sufi-song [YASS] concoction which bollywood tends to en-cash upon these days.

The song starts to flow as a small tandem of acoustic pieces on guitar, sarangi and dholak. These twenty seconds set the stage perfectly for the ensuing vocals. While the dholak sets the momentum, its the sarangi accompanied by shehnai (later in song) which make this piece of music weirdly ethereal. This is the version sung by Krsna himself. The other version of this song, sung by the Wadali brothers uses harmonium in place of sarangi, to create similar magic. While the use of these instruments is really spirited, they hardly rival the grandeur lent by the lyrics and vocals of the song.

Wadali brothers own the song when it comes to the vocals. You can imagine the creativity Krsna put into this complex piece but, Wadali brothers just sing it with absolute nonchalance. Their rendition really creates that spiritual aura this song needed. For what its worth, this was the bollywood debut for these sufi maestros as well and they completed the recording in a single sitting of 12 hours. Professionals, eh! To Krsna's credit, the version with his vocals actually fits the bill for the movie, which needed the absolute catharsis lent by his voice.

Neende rang de, karwat bhi rang,
Khwabon pe pade salwat bhi rang
Ye tu hi hai, hairat rang de,
Aa dil mein sama hasrat rang de,
Fir aaja aur vaslat rang de,
Aa na sake to furqat rang de

Ah, those words. I could have picked up any six lines from the whole song and they'd create just as perfect a sestet as these. Rangrez's lyrics have been penned by Rajshekar, again a debut artist (would you believe it!). Sufi writings have always been an epitome of spiritual romanticism but this song really is in its own league. The ease with which it switches from chaste hindi to persian and back, it's almost as if you were reading Khusro. Coming from Bihar, Rajshekhar portrays absolute prowess of word-play which sends your heart racing.

Enough said, its time I listened to Rangrez yet again. PS - I have easily done over a thousand iterations on this, no kidding.

Here's a little acknowledgement for this post, from the man himself - 

Watch out this space for musings on more recent music, coming pretty soon.

Cheers!