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 The soundtrack of ‘Cheeni Kum’ lands at a time where the remixing wave is full on in the music industry. At times, the original versions and the remixes share the same sounds, beats and tempo that it becomes impossible to differentiate between them. Music companies are currently obsessed with this gimmick and in the mean time, the quality of sounds is moving more towards an addictive beats phenomenon rather than experimentation of sounds. Few years ago, these same music companies were insisting on having compulsory instrumental versions in their soundtracks. Ilaiyaraaja comes in the Bollywood music scene in this second quarter of 2007 with a score that relies on the simplicity of tunes and powerful orchestration. Maestro Ilaiyaraaja demonstrates once again his versatility and his excellent commands over the arrangements, resulting in some extremely catchy melodies and ear pleasing stanzas.
Intoxicating and addictive to the core, the title track, Cheeni Kum blends the refreshing vocals of Shreya Ghoshal with the fast changing music of Ilaiyaraaja. Packed with a racy tempo and an amazing orchestration, Shreya Ghoshal impresses with the rendition of this light composed number. Her vocals take the forefront as she pronounces ‘Cheeni Kum’ in the cutest way possible. The composer doesn’t neglect a single aspect of his music and scores in all departments. The high pitched ‘antara’ provides the track with the needed twist. The continuously flowing music adds more funk while the interludes display an array of instruments all played amazing well, like the saxophone. A completely irresistible title track! The veteran music director elevates the title track to another level in the male version of ‘Cheeni Kum’, which is titled Sooni Sooni. This one is all good minus the prominent rhythm of the original version. A lower tempo is adopted while the mood changes from the infectious funky to a more relaxed one. Vijay Prakash takes good charge of the singing and the voice conveys the emotions desired to be expressed. Orchestration wise, the composer plays an ear pleasing pop background sound while replacing the interludes with simpler musical notes. An interesting and enjoyable follow up!
Shreya Ghoshal is very at ease in ‘Baatein Hawa’, which is essentially a feel-good number with light arrangements. Ilaiyaraaja packs the second interlude with a potpourri of instruments like the heavy rock guitar, the saxophone and heavy percussions. The second version is the solo track by Shreya Ghoshal. Jaane Do Naa by Shreya Ghoshal beautifully starts with a long piano prelude and the production values of this particular track are high with well-composed interludes and accompaniments. Another light and short number by Ilaiyaraaja who works very hard on the musical orchestration and arrangements. The track once again displays the sweet and smooth vocals of the Shreya Ghoshal. Another enjoyable number but less spicier this time!
Shreya Ghoshal emerges as the winner with this soundtrack with three solos, which have all been beautifully composed by Ilaiyaraaja. In 2006, the composer delivered some superb tunes in Shiva with ‘Dheemi Dheemi’, ‘Kaise Kahen’ and ‘Saara Yeh Alaam’. In this soundtrack, Ilaiyaraaja concentrates mainly on the rhythmic tunes, the orchestration and extracts the best from Shreya Ghoshal. Like in Shiva, the South Indian flavour in the tunes is present but acts more as a beautifying factor due to Shreya Ghoshal’s excellent renditions. Amitabh Bachchan’s lines are creative and have punch. The minus point come in the form of the superb interludes, which sometimes do not fit into the tracks and seem as merely inserted musical pieces. This unnecessarily creates a mismatch of musical notes in the tracks. The soundtrack of ‘Cheeni Kum’ is exciting with the prolific sounds of Ilaiyaraaja and contains no sample voices and no remixes, which makes it one of the best light composed soundtracks of this year so far.
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Amitabh Bachchan is hilarious with his dash of humor and quirkiness in the first version of Baatein Hawa as he recites a few lines and funny one liners in the melodious track dominated by Shreya Ghoshal. He goes with the ‘Impress Karne Ke Liye…’ dialogues and makes the track spicier! On a technical note, the addition of the dialogues to the original track is quite amateurish as they do not musically fit into the track at some places. In the last stanza, Big B is delivering his lines while the singing by the main singer, in a reduced volume, is still running in the background.
Melody Saxophone has shades of ‘Jaane Do Naa’ with the saxophone as the main instrument but does not score big because of the too short duration and bland orchestration. The ‘Theme Melody’ has the piano as the main instrument and the tune ‘Cheeni Kum’ is played extremely well. The peaceful atmosphere created by the composer backed by the excellent arrangements makes the short piece instantly likable.