Guzaarish Music Review: Guzaarish: Poetic Crescendo

'Guzaarish' is a much awaited film for many reasons. One of them naturally being that Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan come together once more on screen, making this their third film together after 'Dhoom 2' and 'Jodhaa Akbar'. The second reason, equally significant, is that director Sanjay Leela Bhansali jumps into the fray as a composer with this movie. Of course, Bhansali has always had a keen sense of music but this time he comes to the fore with his musical contribution. There are ten original tracks in this album which have been penned by Turaz and Vibhu Puri. Thankfully, there are no remixes in this album.

The album opens with the title track, 'guzaarish', which has been written by Turaz and sung by KK and Shail Hada. The track opens with the sound of raindrops and then KK's voice makes its appearance and enthralls one. The number has a haunting feel to it. This quality is further enhanced with the emotional drama which seems to be playing out in the background. It serves as a great beginning to the album and also serves as a precursor of things to come.

The second number, 'sau gram zindagi' written by Puri and sung by Kunal Ganjawala is an extremely beautiful track. Finally, someone has really exploited Ganjawala's vocal prowess to its hilt. One has generally heard him sing songs of little consequence, but this number finally does justice to his talent. There is a minimum of musical instruments in this soft, melodious number, with full emphasis on the vocals and Ganjawala's soft pitched husky vocals really raise the pitch of this simple and philosophical number.

The next number, 'tera zikr' has been written by Turaz and sung by Hada and Rakesh Pandit. This is a wonderful love song with a beautiful softness to it which makes it such a pleasure to hear.

The fourth number on this album is 'saiba' which has been sung by Vibhavari Joshi., Francois Castellino and Hada with the lyrics being penned by Puri. The song has a Portuguese touch to it. Female vocalist Joshi takes centresatge in this number, which is a lovely song of love and yearning. Joshi manages to bring out the emotional content of the song beautifully.

The next number on the album sees KK coming in to sing 'jaane kiske khwaab' which has been penned by Turaz. This number too has a lovely haunting quality to it which is brought out brilliantly by the combination of KK's vocals, Bhansali's music and Turaz's words.

'Udi' is the next number which has been sung by Sunidhi Chauhan and Hada, with Turaz chipping in with the lyrics. This song shows a lot more exuberance then any of the other numbers which seem more like private ruminations or dialogues. This one is definitely a number which works more on the outside and is not so much about the inner world of the individual. Sunidhi is a very good choice for this energetic number which is extremely likeable though not in the same manner or degree as the ones preceeding it.

The haunting quality is back with the next number, 'keh na saku' which has been written by Puri and sung by Hada, who finally gets his solo turn in the album. A love song, it has a refreshingly different vocabulary which adds to its novelty. Hada acquits himself very well with the number, especially in the manner in which he moulds his voice to suit the needs of the song.

The eight track on the album is 'chand ki katori' which has been written by Puri and has been sung exquisitely by Harshdeep Kaur. If the sheer poetic magic of the words don't hook one, then Kaur's vocals will do so. The haunting, wistful quality of the music is what stays behind long after the number is over.

KK sings his third number in the album, 'daayein baayein' which has been written by Turaz. A love song it has been sung very well indeed, but lacks the magic of the earlier numbers.

Shankar Mahdevan comes in to sing the final track of the album called 'dhundli dhundli', penned by Turaz. It feels a little similar to some of the numbers which have come earlier, but one forgets that very quickly as he gets into the song and draws his listeners in. Bhansali gives Mahadevan a beautiful number to sing and the singer makes the best use of his superbely trained voice to do full justice to this number, which is all about yearning and longing, easily overshadowing everything that went before.

A lot of great filmmakers like the late Raj Kapoor had a great ear and understanding of music and have been the inspiration behind many great scores. Bhansali too has always had an active role to play in the music of all his films and this time round he decides to take the plunge and compose the music himself.

First things first, he does a great job with the music of 'Guzaarish,' his selection of lyrics and singers is absolutely impeccable. Numbers like. 'guzaarish', 'sau gram zindagi', 'udi', 'chand ki katori' and 'dhundli dhundli' are especially outstanding in all departments.

The other great thing about the music is the attempt that Bhansali has made to give the music a similar kind of feel and sound, thus ensuring that each number kind of leads into the next. The numbers are also not like the usual Hindi film songs, in fact they are not like full blown songs in themselves, but like poetic fragments of life. This is probably an album which may not throw up a chartbuster, but it is definitely an album which needs to be savoured and heard many times over.