Piya Milenge – the Rahmanic rhapsōidia

I had been shilly-shallying over this one for sometime now. It took the whole weekend and a day more for the music junkie to overthrow the indecisive pisces and reign supreme. Couple of things to be set straight, before we get started with the song itself. Firstly, I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that Rahman is not at his best with Raanjhana, BUT he is still better than the myriad of plagiarized buffoonery out there. Secondly, if you ask Elton John to compose a carnatic geetham, it'll produce no more than a fag end (no pun intended). Put approximately, that's what happened to other songs of Raanjhana soundtrack.

Free from the cliched "required by the script" and "regional touch" cacophony, I thought Rahman composed Piya Milenge, true to his self. It's easily the best track from this movie. Unlike Qun Faya Qun or Arziyaan this isn't meant to be a quintessential sufi composition. For the first minute we hear a small sargam libretto on synthesizer beats with Sukhwinder Singh's vocals rolling in. That's when the hook "tohe piya milenge" along with dholak, up the ante. And the next time we hear this hook, its a fusion of dholak with rock-like guitar distortions. The dextrous use of chorus has been Rahman's forte and he uses it this time to lend a qawwali feel to the scheme of things. Icing on this cake comes in around the fourth minute when the libretto is accompanied by violin. For me, these ten seconds of violin riff  create that unalloyed Rahmanic rhapsody we started off with! (Check out the video below for this piece)

Ghoonghat ke pat khol re, Tohe piya milenge

The lines are borrowed from a Mira Bai bhajan, which was also once crooned by the legendary Geeta Dutt for the movie Jogan. That composition in raag darbari, still sounds as blissful as ever. And for true aficionados in you, I have included that video too. The song from Raanjhana uses these lines for the hook but the rest of poetic verses come from Irshad Kamil's pen. He switches from fecund Rockstar to fastidious Raanjhana effortlessly. My take, he is probably the only current generation urdu poets who could carry Gulzar's lineage ahead. 

If the words are reflective, the vocals are robust. With Piya Milenge, Sukhwinder Singh strikes his sonorous best. For decades of his yeoman's service for bollywood, thankfully he still doesn't sound like that grand old uncle with never-say-die spirit :)

And as per our established ritual, here are the videos - 

Watch out this space for more musings on recent music.

Cheers!

Allah-Rakha Rehman

First things first. Like some zillion blogs being published by the second, I am not sure if this baby here, is going to keep afloat for long or just drown and die in its own baptismal font. With that necessary disclaimer out, lets establish the context. This blog is going to be my attempt to pick and muse on some of the best melodies from recent Indian music charts. That's it.
Now, back to A R Rahman. Very simply, this man has been weaving musical magic like no other Indian composer has in last few decades. Personally, it will be blasphemous to not dedicate this first humble post of mine to him. With that in mind, I'm sharing this song "Jiya Jale Jaan Jale" which is one of my Rahman favorites.

Why this song, out of thousand others, you ask? Well, since its going to be about music here, let's rule out the usual suspects first. So, you know its not Preity and Shahrukh's attempt to fill in the sexual void with their moves. The song, was the first one Lata Mangeshkar sung for Rahman and her voice could still create magic (back then). While you could argue that with Malayalam lyrics interspersed and an overall south Indian overtone to the orchestra, somebody like Kavita Krishnamoorthy could have been a choice too. Talking of orchestra, the way Rehman has capitalized on Mridangam to lend a strong flavor to this composition is absolutely amazing. Then come the acoustic pieces, specially the flute, which weave in and out creating a perfect ensemble. The tonal depth of the song is such that at times you almost lose focus on the beautifully penned lyrics by Gulzar. I could go on and on, but there will still be more to like about this song. Quite frankly, the complete soundtrack of "Dil Se" established Rehman right at the pinnacle of 90s music. 

All that aside, I, like many other lesser mortals around, love the melody of song and I hope you do, too.

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

Cheers!