Comeback King

Beera,performed by Vijay Prakash,is by far the best track on the album,a paean to the Raavan-like character portrayed by Abhishek Bachchan. Karthik does a splendid job singing Behene De,which has a haunting quality that Rahman has not tapped since Roja’s Yeh Haseen Wadiyaan. Just like the latter had echoes of the mountains and valleys of the Himalayas,Behene De mimics the turbulent flow of a river that can’t be controlled — only appropriate given that the song compares love to a river that engulfs all that venture into it (Behene de ghanghor ghata/behene de paani ki tarah).

Love seems to be a bit of a villain in Raavan. Ranjha Ranjha,by Rekha Bharadwaj and Javed Ali,also expounds on the helplessness a lover feels (Ranjha Ranjha na kar Heere/Jag badnami hoey/patti patti jhar jawey/ par khushboo chup na hoey),while Kata Kata — by Ila Arun,Sapna Awasthi and Kunal Ganjawala — opens with a raucous shehnai. It compares a new bridegroom to a lamb being led to slaughter. Khili Re is a rather conventional love song — it has a strong classical base,but Reena Bhardwaj’s breathy vocals and clichéd lyrical motifs of blooming flowers turn it into a bore.

The album (priced at Rs 160) will sound comfortingly familiar to fans who were dismayed by his outputs last year. On the flipside,though,Rahman does not break new ground. We like that he has not let a single voice dominate,even his favourite Singh; this is perfectly in keeping with the folk vibes of the music. But we wish he would’ve got at least one soaring,pitch-defying number for us to marvel at.