Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Lyrics: Niranjan Iyengar
Music label: T-Series
Expectations
A patriotic thriller, D-Day has Nikhil Advani's constant comrade-in-arms, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, scoring music. After their first collaboration Kal Ho Naa Ho, the rest of their oeuvre has not really been musically illustrious. So our hopes from the score are not really exalted, especially since this is not a musical subject and so the songs may be used functionally.
Music
The album is a mixed bag. The aces in the score are 'Duma Dum' (Mika Singh, Mani Mahadevan, Gaurav Gupta, Devendra Chitnis and Arun Ingle) and the lovely Sufiana qawwali 'Mera Murshid Khele Holi' (Munawar Masoom, Javed Ali, Shankar Mahadevan, Gaurav Gupta, Rajiv Sundaresan, Mani Mahadevan and Raman Mahadevan).
Coming first to 'Duma dum,' Mika sings the time-honoured Sufi number with typical gusto, and the lyrics and music are modified according to the film's needs. Filmed at a party in the movie, the song captures the abandon and ethos of the original Sufi devotional song and yet blends it with the situation in the film, with some rousing interludes using both wind instruments and strings. However, the sound could have been a little less raucous and better-balanced, though the song is anyway a natural chart-friendly number since the '70s, when Bangladeshi singer Runa Laila first made it hugely popular among Indians.
'Mera Murshid Khele Holi' is easily one of the smoothest flowing qawwalis heard in recent times in Hindi movies. The purity of (Sufiana) form in its composition as well as the revolutionary concept of Hindu-Muslim integration are blended superlatively and impart an august level to this melody. One therefore wishes that the words (Niranjan Iyengar) were less esoteric or, alternatively, that the song was shorter, because a song connects only when the words are easily comprehensible. In musical merit, this remains the best of the four original tracks in the score and should be promoted strategically and much more.
Rekha Bhardwaj, the most 'happening' semi-classical singer in movies today, sings the raag-rich 'Ek Ghadi Aur'. The richness of the tabla and the reverb in the recording gives a mehfil-like ambience to this song, which is a ghazal in structure and lyrically (Niranjan Iyengar) the richest number on the soundtrack. More, the singer infuses the right thumri-like colour to this track that - to use a cliché - grows on you on repeated listening. However, at a length of over six minutes, the song also is a tad long.
The remaining two songs, 'Alvida' and 'Dhuan' are both multi-singer tracks that pull down the weight of the soundtrack. Though one admires the relentless violin strokes in the waltz-like 'Dhuan', the singing in both numbers is too westernized and also bland. These songs, thus emerge as typical modern numbers that are short on soul with the lyrics having more of so-called contemporary style than substance. 'Alvida' also tries its best to emerge as a haunting litany. But both these songs are forgotten as soon as we finish hearing them - even after three or four listens.
Overall
The score is a mixed bag and could have been more uniform. The lyrics are a major issue in the album (except in Ek Ghadi Aur), and so the tried-and-tested Duma Dum, though not original, emerges as the mainstay of the score.
Our Picks
Duma Dum, Mera Murshid Khele Holi, Ek Ghadi Aur