Omkara - Music Review

Ever since Rang De Basanti, I have been buying hindi music albums in the hope that I'd like something. The last something I liked was the one number from KANK. This weekend, I went it to watch the movie, Omkara, 15 mins into the movie, I was itching to fly go buy the soundtrack. The movie was very nice. Othello, has been one of my favorites, mostly because of my feministic tendencies. But more about the movie and Othello at some other times, this is about the music.
As, I was saying it has been a dry season as far as new hindi music is concenred. But the wait is so over!
Ah! I couldn't believe, I did not believe this CD earlier, with music of Maachis, Satya and Maqbool under his belt, I should have known better.

Omkara. Sukhvinder Singh
Uma’s favorite track in the album. It has captured the iterant –singer-retelling-a - folk-lore element very well. Very very nice.
The song starts with a jangly sound of something like an toomba (sister of the ektara, sounds a lot less sharp) . Sukhvinder’s voice is beautiful. The music wells, as a metallic clang of a matka and booming bass join and then there is sound of ghunghroo, the beat is taken on by the Nagada( or Nakkara as it sometimes spelled, a large one sided war drum, played with wooden sticks) and unexpectedly, sound of clapping hands. The main stay is the beat, but the beauty of the song is how the beat is carried forward on varied instruments, like a relay race the baton is passed from the booming bass- to the war drums to the matka- to the clapping hands- to the wooden stick- to the voices of the chorus and then back- to the booming bass. The song relies very heavily on Sukhvinder Singh’s voice which waxes and wanes and moves thru the octaves effortlessly. There are plenty of modern tricks like echo effects and the synth filling in spaces but it is done with subtlety, cleverly disguised by overlaying chorus. Masterful.

O Saathi Re Shreya Ghoshal, Vishal Bharadwaj
Starts with keyboard piece which with a very subtle use of the metal kabbas, transitioning to Shreya’s voice. Flute, subtle beat and occasional twirling of the kabbas. There is a full orchestra in the background( a bevy of violins in tow), but it doesn’t overwhelm the song. The short synth piece in the middle seems false. Vishal and Shreya’s voice blend well and convey the languorous, wistful mood of the song very well. The ending piece when the orchestra lets off is very nicely done.

Beedi Sunidhi Chauhan, Sukhvinder Singh, Nachiketa Chakravorty, Clinton Cerejo
Boy oh boy! The best instrument in the song the voices of the singers. The raunchy lyrics are uttered with a relish. Sunidhi is awesome, the song does justice to the strength of her vocal chords as she switches octaves, picks up and backs up Bipasha’s seductive eyes with her voice. Sukhvinder Singh is himself ( love the way he rolls his r’s :)). Nachiketa Chakrotrovorty is an interesting find, his voice blends enough with the rest of the song with Sukvinders’s to not be noticed; except for the first few lines where he does a great varying level tricks. Somewhere in the middle the song switches from modern instruments with their echos and layers to good old harmonium and dhol, and the song carries on as if nothing happened. The end is nice and abrupt.

Gulzar out did himself, I never expected this from him. The dialect is perfect, the imagery, leaves you a little stunned. The vocabulary is a little arcane, but you feel the impact, rather than understand it. Very in keeping with wordsmith image.

Jag Ja Suresh Wadekar
I haven’t heard the guy in a while, in the movie the lullaby-like song doesn’t have any musical accompaniment, in the CD the music is at its minimum. The minimalistic style adds to the song very well. The words are amusing, the guy is trying to wake up the girl, calling her a doll, a princess, a fairy a queen and then things like ‘ Mooi’ and ‘Maari’ ( god forsaken). Very pretty.

Namak Rekha Bhardwaj, Rajesh Pandit
This could be mistaken for one of the ‘item’ numbers, something hindi movie soundtracks are making a genre out of. It is sung by Rekha Bhardwaj, a fully trained classical musician ( and Vishal's significant other). She has rich voice, reminds me of Shubha Mudgal and Kishori Amonkar, almost. Song is sung in a semi-sufiana style ( with the back ground chorus a-la- Qawali), with harmonium, tabla as the instruments of choice. The training in Rekha’s voice is very obvious as she renders the semi-classical vocal gyrations with ease. The pace is controlled, as always, by the percussion. Lovely voice and very nice rendition.

Naina Rehat Fateh Ali Khan
Of the ‘Rahet Fateh Ali’ style, strong on vocals and
minimalistic in music, yet it manages to distinguish itself. The overwhelming sense of betrayal, helplessness is palpable, some of it is the words-some of it is the music. Naina thag le ge…
Haunting.

Laakad Rekha Bharadwaj

Laakad jal kar koyla hoye jaye, Koyla hoye jaye khak;
Jeya jale to kuch na hoye re, naa, dhooa naa rakh

A twist on famous dhoha:
Lakdi Jaal koyla bahi, koyla jaal bhai rakh;
Main abhagan yon jail, koyla bhai na rakh.

Nice rendition, in keeping with the tone, wistful, melancholy ….
Minimalistic music, the beat keeps the pace of the song ( the loud echoing sound of a dhak).The song starts with a sound of a oars dipping in the water, the dhak carries the beat of the oars. Synth backdrop, mostly keyboard, violins. Rekha’s voice emotes very well. The song ends with a huge audible sigh. Very well done.

Tragedy of Omkara
Short piece, mostly a full orchestra, with avery western feel to it, maybe it is violins. What seems like the marching feet or an army, or is it Othello’s destiny?