Khamoshiyan Music Review - “Deja vu”

Anup Pandey

Music: Bobby-Imran/ Jeet Ganguli/ Ankit Tiwari/ Anupam Amod- Imran Ali/ Naved Jafar.

Lyrics: Rashmi Singh. 

1. Tu Har Lamha

Arijit Singh’s voice and guitars always create great ambience for a mellow, heartfelt song. Bobby and Imran, the composers, here try to overachieve with the arrangements and that entire ambience is lost, and what we get sounds dated.

The remix, by DJ Angel, is a harrowing exercise.

2. Khamoshiyan

The title track, composed by Jeet Ganguli, sung by Arijit, again, feels like two or more dated tunes from the ‘90s are shoehorned into making one composition. Though arrangement-wise, there are little embellishments of sounds that work well.

The Unplugged version is plain reductive and a lost opportunity to expand the scale of the song.

3. Baatein Ye Kabhi Na

Baatein Ye Kabhi Na, again Jeet-Arijit pair, is melancholia of the ‘90s produced with new-age instruments (read: electronic).

The female version, sung by Palak Muchhal, is hardly different; just that Palak’s screeching and shrilling spoils it even more.

4. Kya Khoya

Composer Naved Jafar gives the somber tone of the album so far a rock mood but the vocals and repetitiveness of the track makes it a letdown. 

5. Bheegh Loon

The female version is supposed to be a sensuous track but Ankit Tiwari tries to do too much with the arrangements which end up being least effective.

Some nice singing by Prakriti Kakar though.There exists a remix of the female version too, done by the same DJ Angel, for which you should spare me to write about, please!

Ankit Tiwari himself sings the male version in which he tries too hard to get the nuance, and ultimately renders a needless track.

6. Subhan Allah

Subhan Allah comes with such a déjà vu feeling that you can say it’s just another version of one the songs you just heard but can’t tell exactly which after listening to so much monotonousness from even distinct composers. Now that it is named Subhan Allah, there must be something sufi-esque aabout it, no? So there goes tabla in the arrangement. Unimpressive vocals but that transition from tabla to choir-like chorus is quite spectacular.

Bottomline

Technically, there are 6 different composers behind this album. Yet no one sounds distinct- not a single one. There’s a constant déjà vu that you’ve heard this one in some last Bhatt album, then there’s again a déjà vu that you’ve heard the next song in this same album! Damn, I need a psychiatrist!

Ratings: * ½ (1.5 stars)