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By Joginder Tuteja, June 18, 2004 - 15:52 IST
In the current scenario when there is no space even for the biggies to get a proper release date, a small movie made on a shoestring budget dares to make it's presence felt. 'Raghu Romeo', a film by Rajat Kapoor (who has starred in Monsoon Wedding, Dil Chahta Hai, Mudda, Tum etc. in recent times) and produced by NFDC / Cinematograph, stars Vijay Raaz in the lead role. Co-starring Saurabh Shukla, Maria Gorretti and Sadia Siddiqui, Raghu Romeo is a comedy revolving around a love quadrangular between a street smart guy (Vijay Raaz), a popular TV actress (Maria), a local goon (Shukla) and a bar dancer (Sadia). A movie that has been ready for release for about an year now and has meanwhile got quite some appreciation in the international film festival circuit, it has also earned some rave reviews by the reputed Indian journalists who have seen it's preview. Promos have been on air for last fortnight and the movie is garnering some interest due to its tongue-in-cheek humor. Pritam gives the music while Sanjeev Sharma does the lyrics.
Music of RR is a mix of some songs, dialogue pieces and the instrumentals. Title song 'Main Hero - Raghu Romeo' by Kunal Ganjawala is a rap track with enough humor to keep you engaged throughout. A number written on the lines of the style of Nitin Raikwar, it is situational but still sounds well when heard. The song gives a fair idea about the character sketch of the lead protagonist and makes you look for more in the coming songs. Credit to Kunal who gives that 'street-smart' feel to the entire number.
The following song 'Strawberry Hoon Main' establishes the role of the dancer played by Sadia. A racy track, it may not be remembered for it's lyrical value (Sharat Katariya), but thankfully stays away from being obscene. Sunidhi Chauhan too justfies her selection for this rhythmic item song that may be liked by some if the movie manages to do decently at the box office.
Kunal Ganjawala does a complete turnaround from the title rap track by singing a qawalli with Gayatri Iyer - 'Jaake Khuda Ke Ghar Pe'. A track that is again for the streets rather than having no appeal whatsoever for the classes, by the look of it seems that this may fit well with the movie's narrative. It is romantic and to some extent even funny.
Kunal gets in a pensive mood with 'Main Mamooli Aadmi' that shows Romeo's helplessness to allow his love into his life because of his shortcomings as an individual. Kavita Krishnamurthy is the voice of Maria in this song who tries to motivate him to be optimistic.
Kunal's fourth song in the album is 'Main Kaise Samjhaoon' which is another situational and is a mix of love song, qawalli and some dialogues. As soon as the song turns towards being a qawalli, it goes back to 'Jaake Khuda Ke Ghar Pe'.
'Sweety Ke Samose' is mainly a conversation between Raaz, Sadia and Shukla on a dinner table, where they get into a lighthearted altercation. 'Purab Paschim' is also a dialogue piece between Raaz and Maria where both are trying to convince each other on the difference between 'Maria - the individual' and 'Maria - the actress'.
'Raghu's theme' is primarily a violin piece with a bit of dialogues between Raaz and Maria thrown in. 'The Party' follows in quick succession. The track has a western classical theme and is again well composed. 'Murder Attempt' is another situational piece of music that has the duration of hardly a few seconds and comes in and goes out in a jiffy. 'Rain' has it's inspiration from the background score of Charlie Chaplin movies while 'Raghu in the city' has it's source from Raj Kapoor movies (Remember that painful and saddening rendition of violins in RK films!). Charlie Chaplin and Raj Kapoor - the inspirations are consistent and give a good idea about the characterization of RR. Sad yet funny - down but still optimistic! 'Raghu in the studio' follows the same trend and is again for just a few seconds. 'Sweety's Theme' is an instrumental (a really short one again), which is good but sadly gets over very soon. 'Maria comes in' is the shortest of all and doesn't convey any theme at all (at least on just listening to it) while 'Happy New Year' is on the same lines as the previous instrumentals revolving around Raaz's character.
As is the trend of the Hollywood movies, the soundtrack for RR doesn't follow the conventional song and dance routine but instead has a heavy dose of instrumentals and dialogue pieces. Though a few songs and instrumentals are indeed well composed, after some time one feels that how many people will actually listen to this album in entirety while relaxing in the living room or driving a car. It doesn't provide for much entertainment value when there are dialogue pieces intermittently while the album is being played. A similar experiment was done a few years back in a Hinglish movie 'Snip' but the soundtrack didn't really pick even then. The consolation was a zippy song 'Love Kiya' by Sonu Nigam that got popular to some extent. The same cannot be said for RR that hasn't been publicized extensively. The sole chances for the soundtrack to sell is dependent entirely on word of mouth that the movie may gain once it is released. The movie's success will decide the fate of the soundtrack of the music of Raghu Romeo. Till then the chances are slim that music lovers will pick this album in dozens.
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