Misty Music

It’s no wonder then that most people’s curiosity has been piqued by the news that we’ll finally hear some music created by the director himself for Guzaarish.

From what we’ve seen of the movie’s television promos,there’s an introspective quality about it that is reflected in the music. Take the song Sau Gram Zindagi,beautifully sung by Kunal Ganjawala,which is a meditation on extracting the maximum enjoyment from life. The lyrics by Turaz,where he compares life to black coffee,are reminiscent of Gulzar’s ability to impart gravitas even to mundane observations. Also,just like in his film-making,a certain classicism influences Bhansali the music composer. Don’t expect anything radical here — the base is melodious Hindustani classical music,and follows certain predictable lines of piano flourishes and orchestral crescendos. The title track Guzaarish evokes a splendid atmosphere of dreams and nostalgia,with its accordians,an old movie’s dialogue track and raindrops. A similarly nostalgic song is Dhundli Dhundli,performed by Shankar Mahadevan,where the music is of less consequence when compared to the singer’s awesome vocals.

On the other hand,while the gentleness of the music is soothing,it may get a little boring. To be really effective,a soundtrack needs to have peaks and troughs — here,it’s a plateau. Bhansali has tried to inject a bit of life with the salsa-inspired number Udi,performed by Sunidhi Chauhan. While Chauhan manages to infuse sensuality with her vocals,she simply can’t make it lively,unlike Harshdeep Kaur who does a beautiful job with Chand ki Katori. Another failure on Bhansali’s part is his tragic misuse of KK’s talents. KK is a brilliant singer and can touch great emotional heights,like he did with Tadap Tadap Ke in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Here,he’s made to sing the title track,from which he extracts all the emotional juice he can without going into the upper registers,and Keh Na Sakoon,which is one of the more insipid tracks in the album.