One Song Review

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And the brass band version: ek do teen char chhe…. where is paanch??

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There is a reason I put the rock version of the song first and then the brass band version, read on to find why.

R-rated version:

There is a R-rated version out there, though never claimed, but I have a strong feeling, that the makers of the movie themselves created it for ‘promosanal atyachar’! If you are upto it, find it on youtube or google it. To maintain the sanity of the blog, I had to resist myself posting the link. Its full of hindi abuses, and I believe, is sung by the same singer who did the brass band version.

Amit Trivedi, by now only two films old. But stirring the industry enough, just by his amazing unconventionalism. Pure creativity, unadulterated. First he made the huge impact with the track from Aamir, “Haara“. God knows where was he for all these years. From various sources I gathered, he was an arranger for Om, the fusion band’s debut album (remember the awesome sufi-rock track Maula? the song was later used in movie Iqbal). The album was composed by Shriram Iyer and Bobo (the erstwhile guitarist of one of the early rock bands in India, Shiva). Amit Trivedi also composed music for whoever that sappy singer named Abhijit Sawant is! Ya ya, I know who he is … don’t get too hung up over him!

But none of those earlier work has made me pause and take notice of his music - before I heard ‘Aamir’ and now, ‘Dev D’. Very creative and original. Very unorthodox and to raw (in a good way).

The brass band version has all its unorthodox treatment and shock value to get you hooked, and no wonder they have been using it heavily for promotion. But musically, it really doesn’t offer much. On the other hand, the rock version is very well performed and well sung (sung by Amit Trivedi himself).

I didn’t like the opening of the song though, the tingly keyboard patch and the female chorus ooohhh… part. It almost reminds me of opening of ‘Dil to pagal hai’ title track. So for me the song begins at the drums. And the way it takes off after that, no looking back. Some very powerful vocalss follow - the best part being the pause followed by big Aaarrrghhhh …. its crazy like hell! And btw, that Aaaarrrrgggghhhhh is done by none other than Anurag Kashyap (Director) himself. Amit Trivedi’s voice has the adequate gruffness to it, and is a good justice to the rock version. Have to say one more thing about Amit Trivedi influenced by himself - the ending of Hat Ja Re sounds just like “..dasti hi jaaye” line from his earlier hit “Haara” from Aamir.

The brass band version is just novelty and cheeky lyrics, and nothing else. Though great ‘promosanal atyachar’ material, the video is even more cheesy - two hippies in elvis costume!

In coming days, I will be writing more about few other songs from Dev.D. Amit Trivedi is one of the best thing to happen to hindi commercial music in recent times. So don’t miss a chance to listen to music of Aamir and Dev.D.

References:

The makings of Dev D (check the last 3-4 minutes of the following video, where they talk about music)

“Haara” from Aamir (music by Amit Trivedi)

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“Maula” from Iqbal (Music arrangement by Amit Trivedi)

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