MUMBAI: Big banners and production houses often avoid early releases, thus leading to a creation of space and opportunity for ‘other’ movies to flourish and make most of the market. In the month of January this year, few albums and movies were released, but ‘romance’ and ‘drama’ again became the genre to set the mood right as the calendar year opened. Three soundtracks have made news for their commercial and critical success: 'Sanam Re', ‘Fitoor’ and ‘Jugni’- Here’s why.  

Sanam Re
Bollywood’s current generation of directors have adopted the formula of multiple-composers for their movies and Divya Khosla Kumar’s second feature film ‘Sanam Re’ stands as a fine example of that trend. Having multiple composers for a romantic movie never works against the the makers’ favour, especially when the names involved are Mithoon, Amaal Mallik and Jeet Ganguly. With eight tracks, ‘Sanam Re’ has what every mainstream movie revolving around romance and heartbreaks asks for.

Best of the lot: ‘Sanam Re’ - The title track, extensively used for the movie’s promotion exemplifies why the partnership of Mithoon and Arijit Singh is currently the most promising musical combination in the industry. The romantic melody with Arijit Singh’s voice (and Anirudh Bhola as backing) sums up the purpose of the entire movie. It’s probably too early to speculate, but the song would definitely be remembered and hummed in the years to come.

Worst of the lot: ‘Humne Pee Rakhi Hai’ - Party anthems or item numbers have become necessities for every soundtrack, and Diya Kumar could not stay immune to this trend either. This track does not have intelligent lyrics or unique party sound or rhythms essential to make one groove for the rest of the year. If the ‘Sanam Re’ track could be remembered for the rest of the year, ‘Humne Pee Rakhi Hai’ could easily be forgotten before the month ends.

Rating : 3 Stars: Courtesy of the Mithoon-Arijit track and Shreya Ghoshal’s ‘Tum Bin’ (composed by Jeet Ganguly), the soundtrack of the movie justifies Divya Kumar’s trust in implementing the formula that soon could become every director’s priority for music.

Jugni
Clinton Cerejo’s album for debutant Shefali Bhushan’s ‘Jugni’ exceeds expectations for a production that does not involve heavyweights. Times have changed and Bollywood has distributed more portions of its focus to quality refreshing music that has emerged through the underground or ‘independent’ music scene in the country. The soundtrack of ‘Jugni’ clearly stands as an example of how Cerejo has matured as a musician over the years. The ‘Coke Studio’ essence can be heard through the rhythmic progressions and the ‘folksy’ sound the composer has provided to the soundtrack. Jugni’s storyline revolves around the protagonist’' love for music and hence the music remains the vital aspect of the soul of the movie.

Best of the lot: ‘Dilaan De Saudey’: In a soundtrack that involves Rahman’s music, Vishal Bhardwaj’s vocals and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan’s qawwali, it is Cerejo’s composition ‘Dilaan De Saudey’ that takes the cherry as well as the cake. The song reminds you of Cerejo’s ‘Coke Studio’ sessions but does not sound repetitive in any of the aspects, at any point of the track. The song progresses with the brilliant effect of electric guitars and Javed Bashir’s powerful vocals. If Cerejo’s musicality had to be described in one song, ‘Dilaan De Saude’ would be it.

Worst of the lot: ‘Dil Ke Sang’: It still remains a mystery as to how Cerejo could compose a track like ‘Dil Ke Sang’. It surely is not the worst of the compositions to be made this year so far, but then Cerejo himself is to be blamed for raising expectations with other soulful-and-brilliant compositions in the movie.

Rating: 4 Stars: Not only has Cerejo raised the bar for himself, but he announces himself as a ‘serious’ music director to the industry, yet again. Roping in Vishal Bhardwaj and Neha Kakkar’s unplugged version illustrates Cerejo’s desire to experiment not only with the ‘big names’, but also with the style and the sound.

Fitoor
Slated for a 12 February release, the album of ‘Fitoor’ was launched on 18 January and following the norm that surrounds any Amit Trivedi soundtrack critics paid extra attention to the 36-year-old’s latest work. Abhishek Kapoor’s ‘Rock On’ and ‘Kai Po Che’ act as a testimonial to the director’s love for good music, and surely, half the job was done by roping Trivedi for this Aditya Roy Kapur and Katrina Kaif starrer romantic drama film. The seven-track soundtrack features the voices of Arijit Singh, Zeb Bangash, Sunidhi Chauhan and Trivedi also provides his vocals for ‘Pashmina’.

Best of the lot: This is the worst part about reviewing a Trivedi soundtrack. Yet, if one song had to be chosen over others- purely on its lyrics, the effect, and the musical arrangements- the Amit Trivedi-Komal Shayan sung ‘Pashmina’ delivers accurate emotions to the location and the storyline of the movie (an adaptation of ‘Great Expectations’). And how can one forget Swanand Kirkire’s lyrics that married Trivedi’s sound to produce the exquisite rich wool, or ‘Pashmina’? The falsettos, the bassline and the lyrical depth force you to play the song on loop before you finally jump to the next.

Worst of the lot: Surprisingly, the worst of the lot comes from the Sunidhi Chauhan and Jubin Nautiyal performed ‘Tere Liye’. Sounds too close to ‘Pashmina’ during the intro, but progresses into another direction altogether, only to get a bit worse. Simply put, the composition does not have a ‘Trivedi’ factor.

Rating: 4 Stars: Trivedi’s presence adds glamour to any movie, and the ‘Lootera’ music director exactly does that with ‘Fitoor’ and how! Critics point out several reasons to draw a parallel between Trivedi and Rahman (nothing that either involved party should complain about), and the larger reason for the same continues to be Trivedi’s ability to engross listeners into listening to the entire soundtrack- a quality easily relatable with Rahman.