‘The Great Indian Kitchen’, a Malayalam film released in 2021, was not a musical as such. It had just two songs composed by Sooraj S. Kurup. ‘Mrs’, its Hindi remake, comprises four original tracks. While two songs are composed by Sagar Desai, two are put together by Faizan Hussain. The lyrics have been written by Neeraj Pandey, Arun Kumar and Pallavi Bhardwaj Hussain.
A decade and a half ago, one would hear Suraj Jagan’s voice in films quite frequently. While one did heard Suraj’s voice in the Vikrant Massey starrer ‘Blackout’ a couple of months ago, the singer does not do a lot of work as a playback singer these days. “Rukte Rukte Chali Re”, a song rendered by him, opens the album. Even though the song is titled “Rukte Rukte Chali Re”, one realizes the lyricist has, quite correctly, written “ri” and not “re”. Sagar composes a fairly catchy tune and Neeraj adds a lot of quirk to it through his verses. The arrangements, too, contribute towards making the song sound interesting.
“Ummidon ki nayi subah, haule se gunguna rahi, mubarak safar, humsafar…”, the lyrics written by Arun Kumar and Pallavi Bhardwaj Hussain, give the inkling of “Humsafar” being a song played in the background when Richa (Sanya Malhotra) and Diwakar (Nishant Dahiya) get married in the film. The song also reflects the kind of aspirations and hopes the newly wedded Richa has. Faizan composes a lovely tune that are ornamented by some thoughtful lyrics by Kumar and Hussain. The highlight of the song, without a doubt, is Vidhya Gopal. Gopal’s voice has a certain warmth which works very well for the song.
“Bar Bar”, sung by Palak Muchhal, is one of the best songs on the album”. While one is not sure why the song is titled “Bar Bar” and not “Baar Baar”, what one cannot deny the fact that it is a highly melodious song that strikes an instant impression on one as a listener. In the film, Richa is somebody who is extremely passionate about dance. The mood and texture of this semi-classical song indicates this comes at a time when Richa performs on stage. Sagar Desai composes a mellifluous tune and Neeraj brings themes like internal strength and rebellion effectively to the fore through his lyrics.
After “Bar Bar”, one is treated to another beautiful melody in the form of “Majbooriyan”. This one, however, has a sombre tone to it. The pensive melody created by Faizan Hussain is well-complemented by the lyrics written by Arun Kumar. A special mention must be made of the incredible rendition by Rehaa. One expects the song to make an appearance at a juncture when Richa feels the pain and suffocation of being a part of a family which does not respect her ambitions and treats her like a doormat.
Just like ‘The Great Indian Kitchen’, the film it derives its source material from, ‘Mrs’ seems to be centred around the life of a young woman who finds herself being devalued and her dreams being crushed after getting married into a conservative and sexist middle-class household. The four songs in the album do a very good job of bringing the various emotions faced by the young woman to the fore. Most of the songs in the film hold a lot of appeal as standalone audio tracks as well.