I have no idea what the movie Striker – or Strikah as the title song calls it – is about other than it stars Siddharth, but if I had to make a guess I’d say kirkit? Or maybe it’s about an assassin because it apparently also has Aditya Panscholi in it and I don’t think he’s played anything else in forever.
What I do know is that it has some pretty amazing music. From an eclectic mix of people including my least favorite rapper ever: Blaaze.
Knock me down with a feather. Maybe he only sucks when he gets with AR Rahman? I’ll even forgive him the gratuitous remix of his title song – those things are pretty much the rule these days aren’t they? I don’t know why. Are the honchos of the music companies under the impression that the audience craves them in some way or are they just getting more bang for their buck by scuttling whatever plans someone else might have had for remixing their oh-so-special tracks? Do they have special acoustics in their offices that makes it perpetually sound like the 1970s? Coz not every song is worth it, you know.
Anyhoo…Amit Trivedi keeps up the excellent work from last year with Siddharth’s spoken word effort in Bombay Bombay. And sounding like Trivedi and Blaaze’s love child is Yuvan Shankar Raja’s Haq Se.
Moving towards the more traditional end of the spectrum is Swanand Kirkire with Maula, which is an enjoyable track but is terribly outshone by its company who definitely brought their A-game. However, Kirkire makes up for lost ground with his wordsmithing skills.
Vishal Bhardwaj then teams up with Gulzar to show him how it’s done with Yun Hua. When the man can take a song that by rights belongs on a Hallmark commercial – or some other product that makes Young Love flip their hair a lot and punch the air in celebration – and melt your heart with it, you know things are good. Could anybody stand up to these two?
Funny you should ask. Because the person who does the most interesting work on Striker is Shailendra Barve. He gets two songs and he makes them count. After what seems like a long time, Sunidhi Chauhan gets to do something different with her voice in the quietly reflective Pia Sanvara. And it is Barve who composed what is the standout track on this album for me: the semi-classical Chham Chham. Here’s something after a good long while that actually asks Sonu Nigam to do more than coast.
To me, it sounds like the song I always wanted AR Rahman’s Kehna Hi Kya from Bombay to be. If it manages to capture the zeitgeist a la Amit Trivedi’s Kavita Seth-crooned Iktara from Wake Up Sid, I bet you’re all going to be mighty sick of this song in the near future. The good news is that I’ve been listening to this song, alongside that other recent Vishal Bhardwaj gem, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan’s rich caramel-y Dil to Bachcha Hai from Ishqiya, on a near constant loop for the past week and it still hasn’t palled.
This is something I would buy. If the movie’s even half as interesting as its album, you can sign me up. But then you already knew that. 2010′s off to a flying start. What’s everybody else listening to these days? I need weekend recommendations!
