THE MUSIC (or should I say MAGIC) OF 99 SONGS : A R RAHMAN
About four weeks back, when I first listened to fourteen songs from 99 songs, the first thing which I decided was that I would listen to these over and over again. And I have listened to these numbers at least a dozen times in the last four weeks! And this is the second time that I have heard new songs at such a frequency in 2020, the first time being in January, when the Telugu album ALA VAIKUNTHAPURAMULO was released. For those of you who do not know, the music of this Telugu film has been the first album in India to exceed one Billion music streams on YouTube India! But this post is about 99 songs and not ALA VAIKUNTHAPURAMULO!
I queried with at least twenty of my musically inclined friends about whether they had heard of 99 songs, and not one seemed to have heard about this! And that was about the time when AR Rahman in a rare exchange of views with media had talked about his not getting enough opportunities to score music for Bollywood. It was then that I put two and two together, and understood as to why the best music album in Bollywood in 2020 till date had not garnered much publicity!!
99 SONGS is a Bollywood commercial movie produced by AR Rahman (his first as a producer), that was premiered in Busan International Film Festival last year, where he performed live the track THE ORACLE, which is the theme tune for 99 SONGS and which track is appended to this post. The whole sound track was released in March this year, and it is easily Rahman’s best creation since ROCKSTAR which happened about nine years back. Each of the numbers is in a different genre and at least six of these fourteen tracks are worth hearing over and over again.
My pick is JWALAMUKHI, rendered by Arijit Singh in his trademark pitch and the lyrics seem to convey Rahman’s inner feelings : Jwalamukhi Bezubaan! And there is a female version of this as well, sung by Poorvi Koutish, one of the alumnni from Rahman’s music school. Another new singer Shashwat Singh gets to sing five numbers, but the most outstanding is the first number in the album, O Aashiqa. And there is a Sai Bhajan by Bela Shinde, and a lullaby that sounds like the Chanda Hai Tu from Aradhana. And you have Armaan Malik singing O Humnawa which stays with you for a long time. I can write and write about these numbers (because there are fourteen tracks), but I do not want to come in between your listening to these tracks. Before concluding, I must however mention the Soja Soja track sung by Shasha Tripathi to the accompaniment of a jazz type structure and how the lyrics (If you dont love me, I will put a bullet through your heart) seem to resonate with the thoughts of a jilted lover or paramour.
And this movie 99 SONGS is about love and sensuousness of art and music and is slated for a release on NETFLIX shortly. I dont know how the movie will be, but you will love quite a few numbers in this album! Happy listening!
#MusicOf99SONGS #99SONGS
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