Peepli Live: Music Review

Aamir Khan is a pucca perfectionist. This time round he makes a movie touching the very Indian ground of Indian villages and who he chooses to compose and sing – Indian Ocean, along with Nageen Tanvir, Ram Sampath and Raghuvir Yadav. Here is a review of his album Peepli [Live].

The album starts with Indian Ocean’s Des Mera Rangrez ye baabu. The song is a typical Indian Ocean piece with their familiar voices and instruments. The song is a satirical one on India and the country’s system from top to bottom. Swanand Kirkire and Sanjeev Sharma write some good lyrics and words like ‘raai pahaad hai kankar shankar’ say a lot among them. Must listen. For all the music and words.

There is another version of the song too, called Des Mera – 1. The song goes a bit towards the comic mood and has lyrics bit less serious than the first version.

The second song of the album is a very folkish, very earthy Mehngai dayan sung by Raghuveer Yadav and composed by Ram Sampath. The song is totally based on dholak and all keertan-mandali instruments and sounds like one sung by a mandali. Swanand Kirkire gets us some shallow lyrics about some deep-rooted problems. The song is not about music but I’m certainly loving it. Raghveer Yadav seems perfect for the song.

And yes, there is a remix version of the song too, which sounds even more awesome with all those English lyrics and the different background. Must listen thing.

The third song of the album Zindagi se darte ho which comes from Indian Ocean again, is more like typical music in the market, with a slight rock-ish mood. To be frank, I didn’t like the music of the song much in the first half where there are more of high notes but the second half gets quite better and gives a good feel to the whole song. But then, the thing I loved in the song is the lyrics. Roshni se darte ho, roshni to tum bhi ho, roshni to hum bhi hain, Aadmi se darte ho, aadmi to tum bhi ho, aadmi to hum bhi hain.. Just superb work by Noon Meem Rashed.

The next song is a three minute long chola maati ke raam, composed and sung by Nageen Tanveer. The song is not in standard khadi boli Hindi and the language sounds something like awadhi to me. A bhajan written by Gangaram Sakhet which I half understood, though I still enjoyed the three minutes.

Overall, Peepli [Live] is a pretty good album which looks as good and as different from the contemporary music as the movie itself. The music is good while the lyrics are better, touching the problems they should, and hence making the songs completely in sync with the movie. Go for it if you have any interest in ‘different’ music, that beyond typical, commercial, Bollywood.

Tags: Aamir Khan, Indian Ocean, Music Review, Raghubir Yadav, Ram Sampath, Swanand Kirkire