EXCLUSIVE: Guzaarish Music Review

Trust Sanjay Leela Bhansali to approach him with trepidation.


If it wasn’t his aspiration to be counted in the auteur theory, let’s say his full-fledged musical foray with the score of Guzaarish begins with a minor irritation – on the jacket of the CD, with his name for music, he’s decided to replace lyricist with ‘words’ by Turaz and Vibhu Puri – the duo who have written the songs, and according to him, mere ‘words’ as fillers for his grand score. You can already hear his trumpet bellowing.


What are the trophy-givers going to announce at the award ceremonies next year? ‘And the award for the best ‘words’ goes to…’ Some things just sound better as they are; tampering appears shallow in light of modernist approach.


The first shower then, of rain, on the title track, borrows from Saawariya’s wash-out. KK and Shail Hada croon in the pelter, pleading for some more. You will then drop your jaw if I say the song bears a sinister resemblance to George Michael’s Older. Na, na, na, na, na, not SLB, he won’t filch. Go youtube. Hada’s trill in the end, SLB’s penchant for high-pitched end note, is well, legendary bow-out, so here’s a thumbs-up for the title track.


The next track, Sau Gram Zindagi (21 Grams anyone?) – Kunal Ganjawala could be standing at a farsan store singing about life’s unbearable weight. The ‘words’ then could do without the opulent sweep of music – a bare acoustic accompaniment could have served this better. One thinks of the unlikely combination of Gulzar-R D Burman when one composes songs exposing the mundane fatalities of life’s bittersweet exchange. Think ‘Ek hi khwab kai baar dekha hai maine’ from Kinara, where repeat words become endearing in their simple telling. The English portion where Kunal declaims, ‘Life is wonderful, life is pain, oh yeah yeah, life is good, you are part of that game,’ instantly puts this song tops on a gospel channel beseeching you to order life now, only a hundred grams, via tele-shopping. Exhorting becomes risible.


Shail Hada and Rakesh Pandit’s Tera Zikr is tryingly worded to rhyme, to extend dialogue into song. ‘Zikr- Itr – Fikr – Mitr’ – that sort of thing. Bhansali goes for an effervescent quality in this, and he achieves it; a heady, cool, breezy, moody sway. This is Hrithik’s flipping after ‘Main Aisa Kyon Hoon,’ over to you, Tera Zikr will make him bounce off the wall, a ping-pong ball once again. Wait for the music video.


Saiba’s intro sounds like maa-ki-gaali in aria till Vibhavari Joshi steps into the mic, a little girl swirling her frock and singing wistfully. The singing cascades and slips, and slips, and slips into zzzzz. Was that the idea?


KK’s Jaane Kiske Khwaab is plangent to the point that you will curl up in bed with your stuffed puppies. Cho-chweet!


With Udi, you wake up from the soporific schmaltz you have been subjected to so far. Sunidhi lifts your feet, your spirit, induces a catatonic twist into your body. Bhansali should have trebled music towards the finale, a rousing full-bodied, full throttle Flamenco race to the end.


On Keh Na Saku, Shail sounds pointedly nasal. It’s a slo-mo track sung flat mid-tempo, no room for variation.


Where is the playful banter in Chaand Ki Katori? Harshdeep Kaur has to sing a mournful dirge when the ‘words’ are chirrup. ‘Mohabbat ka sweater kis ke liye bunte hain.’ Does it have to be sung funereally? Dreadful, dreadful, Mister Bhansali, please cheer up.


Daayein-Baayein tails the other tracks, can’t tell which one came first or which is following the other. Monotonous.


Shankar Mahadevan is for whom the bells toll, birds tweet, feathers flutter; a la Black symphony. In Dhundhli Dhundhli, the violins are still weeping for Rani Mukherjee’s triumph at the church of her will. Hrithik, fear not, you have SLB to help you out of that wheelchair.


Satyajit Ray could do it. Vishal Bhardwaj does it repeatedly. Who says SLB cannot do it? No further consternation. We’ll wait.

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