Hindi Music Review - Bose The Forgotten Hero

Allah Rakha Rahman (aka A.R. Rahman) has done it once again. His music truly represents the modern patrons of Indian patriotism. His Vande Mataram was the start, then came The Legend of Bhagat Singh, after that was Swades and now it is Bose - The Forgotten Hero. With each and every major release he seems to be stepping up with his music. Earlier his music was more South Indian with a western tinge. Then he proved that he can do the same magic in hindi films too (some notable ones include Dil Se, Rangeela, Zubeida, Tehzeeb, The Legend of Bhagat Singh, Yuva). And then he went on to include western choirs in the music and later went on to include seperate instrumental themes. With Bose he has done a lot of instrumental themes, as varied as two of them with an Afghan Theme, two titled Emilie's Theme (It seems Emilie was his Austrian Wife), two war themes, a Hitler Theme, a U-Boat Theme, a National Anthem theme out of a total of 13 instrumental songs. The rest of the music in the remaining 7 songs, features excellent singers...<Continued...>

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My personal favorite is the "Ekla Chalo", sung by Nachiketa Chakraborty and Sonu Nigam. The beginning of this song features a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, with a deep meaning. This verse has been excellently sung by Nachiketa. Although I wasnt quite impressed with the usage of Sonu Nigam for this piece - no denying that he is a very good singer, but I think a fresher voice would have made this song even better. While Googling about the music, I found that such songs are called Rabindra Sangeet which have a mix of Bengali and Hindi.

"Aazadi" starts off with a choir and then comes the voice of Rahman - he has a great voice too, and he always sings only those songs that fit within his vocal range (this single characteristic is enough to set him apart from Anu Malik - have you heard his Let's play Holi song from Waqt). A classic example is the "Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera" which he sung in Swades, his voice suited the song just perfectly.

"Kadam Kadam" is a good number with drum beats that is very typical in a patriotic film. "Hum Dilli Dilli Jayenge" also follows the same pattern.

"Des Ki Mitti" is a slow song which is alright (Sonu Nigam again). "Zikr" is a slow sufi type of song. "Ghoomparani" is very well sung by Sapna Mukherjee and Satyanarayan Mishra. I liked the way she pronounces the words "Ghoomparani mashi pishi...".

About the minuses in this album: Madhushree, my favorite singer is conspicuously absent in this album. Two songs feature Sonu Nigam, would have preferred someone with a fresher voice.

Overall, this is a must-have Rahman album. Dont miss it.

And by the way, the movie is directed by Shyam Benegal and lyrics is by the God Javed Akthar.

<Research was done using the help of Google.>
References include:
<http://www.bollyvista.com/article/p/31/4496>
<http://store.indiatimes.com/timesmusic/TimesMusicDetails.jsp?albumid=alb14772>
<http://www.raaga.com/channels/hindi/music/AR._Rehman.html>