Lahore: Music Review (MM Kreem, Piyush Mishra)

Sometimes big things come in small packages. Lahore’s soundtrack is one of those things.

Lahore starts with a solo, soulful rendition by MM Kreem as he starts singing Zameen chhod bhar aasma baahon mein, Parwaz kar nayi dishayon mein, to be joined by Karthik and KK to make a ‘hopeful’ song. Ab ye kaafila is not the best song of the album, but it gives you something new, and gets you out of the mindless beats that are going on all around you. A good start to the album.

The next song of the album is Daler Mehndi’s Musafir. Now here is a something I need to tell. Daler Mehndi in Musafir is NOT the typical Daler Mehndi and the song is NOT a typical Daler song. The song doesn’t use a loud and bubbling with joy Daler but we get to see a different side of Daler Mehndi as he croons a slow, kind of sad song. In fact his rendition is such that only at certain points when he goes a bit high on notes do you realize that it’s him. Remember Kailash Kher’s Ya Rabba? It’s something like that only for Daler. Listen to the song to find a new Daler Mehndi at least. And yes, the song is really good but takes some time to set in mind.

The next song, Rang De, is a typical Daler Mehndi song, but this one is not sung by Daler, but Shankar Mahadevan and Shilpa Rao instead. Unfortunately, the song has quite some similarities with Rang De Basanti title song and Junaid Wasi’s lyrics hardly help the case, but then, the song has it’s own touch too and makes a different identity of its own, if only you give the song enough time. Both Shankar and Shilpa are good, but the song, it seems, lacks something. Not great, but surely a bit on the upper side of average.

The next song, Saanware, sung by composer MM Kreem himself, is one of the best pieces of the album. The song is basically a sad number and Kreem puts his soul into his wailing tune. The song is almost free from any noise and the music is minimal but towards the end, Kreem adds effects to his voice and at the very end, makes the song almost ready to rock. Sounds like an interesting experiment there. Anyway, Saanwre is good. Do listen to it.

The next track of the album is a second version of Musafir, this time sung by Kreem himself. Now, though Daler does a great work on his version, Kreem is so good in the first minute of the song that he scores high over Daler’s version at that point. But then, coming to higher notes, Daler sounds very comfortable as the roughness in Kreem’s voice makes the songs different and a matter of choice. One bad thing about Kreem’s version is that his diction is not yet perfectly clear. So Daler is my choice even though I can’t help but love Kreem’s soulfulness.

The next song of the album, O re Bande, is the only composition of Piyush Mishra for the album and is sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Shilpa Rao. The song is a Qawwali with some wonderful restraints and makes Rahat do what he does best, singing a great Qawwali, without straining his voice uselessly, something that has almost become a trend with many composers just because he can do it and does it in most his public performances. Anyway, coming back to my topic, the song is a wonderful piece of music by Piyush Mishra and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan while Shilpa Rao plays her part superbly. The song also has some beautiful lyrics and the singing makes it sound all the more wonderful. The jis mand si muskaan ke aage jhuki hain kudratein part gives the peak of the song which is worth listening to. Listen to the song. I am loving it.

At the end, there is a theme composed by movie’s background music composer Wayne Sharpe and sung by Lisbeth Scott. The haunting theme is sung pretty well by Lisbeth and while it’s more of a background piece, you might consider listening to it even on the soundtrack too.

Overall, Lahore is a good album that provides music which is not run of the mill. It’s quite free from the noise and beats I’m listening to everywhere today. In short, MM Kreem performs once again and Piyush Mishra certainly doesn’t disappoint with his one track. Junaid Wasi’s lyrics could be better in many places but talking about the album as it is, I guess they are not bad either. My say is Go for Lahore!

Tags: Junaid Wasi, M M Kreem, Music Review, Piyush Mishra