One of motivations behind starting this blog was to bring some of the finest music from our times for the millions of Indian music lovers around the world. Some movies fail to make a mark at so-called box office barometer of success, hence almost everything associated with the movie fails to register in people’s mind.
This song Jhin min jhin is a perfect example! Maqbool as a movie is surely one of the finest of last decade from the bollywood factory. Though I can go on about the movie, direction, performances (Pankaj Kapoor, Irfan Khan, Tabu at their individual best), the dark-beauty of the screenplay, and is a must-watch for all movie lovers. Unfortunately, the movie failed to be a commercial success, though it gathered a lot of critical acclaim, but that’s a topic of discussion for some other blog. Let me refocus on this song.
First the song:
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Vishaal Bharadwaj, let me tell you - he never ceases to amaze me with his creativity, as a music director or as a movie director, or even as a writer or a singer! How can one person be so creative in all these different fields and yet be nothing short of the best in each of them! Rare breed indeed (though Farhan Akhtar has been added to that list lately).
If you are listening to this song for the first time, may be listen to it several times till it sinks into you. Because it gets more and more beautiful every time you listen to it. And the layers reveal one after another. There is quite a bit happening in this song.
Sung by Sadhana Sargam, Ustad Sultan Khan, Anuradha Shriram & Rakesh Pandit. The instrumentation develops gradually and Vishal has used the effect of percussioin and bass very well. The female parts (mostly sung in chorus) are double the speed, and Ustad Sultan Khan’s parts are half the pace. And towards the end of the song, the vocals of Ustad remains the same pace while the rhtyhm doubles up the pace. That juxtaposing creates an interesting musical pattern. The rhythm section is an interesting mix of bass and drums with Indian percussion.
Sultan Khan’s voice, as always, simultaneously demonstrates silkiness and with lots of earthy feel to it. Its the musical equivalence of aged wine. In some way, there is a touch of divinity in his voice - you feel the devotion when he is singing Allah ka pyaara woh to!
There is an alternative extended version here: Not much difference other than the initial bol (rhythmic vocalization).
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There is not much in the music video, the song is to be experienced in the context of the film. There is a little clip of the song (watch the following video @ 1m 34s) from the making of the movie interview with Vishal B and others from the movie. The video doesn’t add much to the beauty of the song, except the fact that song & the vocal tone perfectly demonstrates the exuberance of the situation.
I know in internet age, its sacrilegious to report something that is 5 days old, but this song review comes 5 yrs after the 2004 music release, but I had to do it, because I didn’t want to lose this beautiful song in the course of time. And I started this blog only in early 2009.
Other songs from the film are average, yet Ru-Ba-Ru is a decent one, and suprisingly rendered by Daler Mehndi (you will never guess its him from what we have come to know him as).
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And Chingari, a song by Vishal’s better half, Rekha Bhradwaj (singer of ‘Namak’ from Omkara) is well-sung too.
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Vishal’s movies and music are one of the best combination of cinematic poetry that the Indian audience experiences. His experimentation with music goes beyond the human limit, if Maqbool is more traditional in terms of orchestration, he offers a different dimension in music of ‘No Smoking’ (though the movie didn’t work, but listen to the background score, its 100% pure jazz - sorry, I don’t have the audio clips, and in fact I am also searching for them).
Other resources:
- Planet Bollywood music review
- One of the finest movies - blog by Jottings
