Sarthak didn’t overstay the Swagat

Veere Kadh De – the last of the 13 tracks from 99 Songs on this blog – was an amalgamation of three genres that have captured the imagination of young music buffs in India of late – rap, Punjabi folk and electronic sounds.

Penned by Navneet Virk and Shiv (who wrote the rap portion), the A R Rahman composition was rendered by Sarthak Kalyani and Swagat Rathod. The duo participated in the legendary music director’s YouTube contests.

The track was just three minutes and 38 seconds long, but was a tad disappointing vis-à-vis the mind-blowing numbers preceding it.    

Poorvi’s whispering was the highlight

The penultimate track from 99 Songs on this blog was The Voice Without Words.

As the name suggests, it was primarily an instrumental piece, and had no words, barring the ones whispered by Poorvi Koutish.

And no words would suffice to describe the genius named A R Rahman, who composed the track. There’s no two ways about the fact that the highlights of the track – which was four minutes and 13 seconds long – were its orchestration and arrangements.

Speaking of words, would it be necessary to state that the track was penned by Navneet Virk?

Shashwat sang this short song

The fifth – and final – contribution of Shashwat as a Sing(h)er to the soundtrack of 99 Songs was Teri Nazar.

It was the shortest of the five tracks rendered by him in the film – it was four minutes and three seconds long.

The track, which was penned by Navneet Virk and Dilshad Shabbir Shaikh, was composed by A R Rahman (for whom Shaikh works as a music supervisor).

Released as the fifth single of the album on March 13, 2020, the track is based on Indian classical music (Raga Charukesi, to be precise) and Sufi music.    

Ms Tirupati sang thiS(o)jazz number

While the soundtrack of 99 Songs may have featured a song titled Soja Soja, the manner in which it was rendered made Hindi film music buffs wake up and be blown by Shashaa Tirupati’s vocals and the fact that jazz was finally on the big screen in India.

And no prizes for guessing that the credit for that goes to A R Rahman, who composed the track, which was penned by Navneet Virk and was five minutes and 25 seconds long.

It featured a piano piece by American keyboardist Randy Kerber and a brass ensemble.  

Singh sang this superb ballad

Sofia – which has nothing to do with the capital of Bulgaria – was a ballad on the soundtrack of 99 Songs.

And no prizes for guessing the name of the lyricist (Navneet Virk), the music director (A R Rahman) and, of course, the Sing(h)er – Shashwat.

It was four minutes and 35 seconds long.

It was backed by guitarist and music producer Keba Jeremiah’s strums, and arranged by Arjun Chandy.

And the man who supplied the backing vocals was Goan singer Leon D’Souza, who sang Hosanna, the Rahman composition from Ekk Deewana Tha (which released in 2012).

 

Shende’s second solo was devotional

Sai Shirdi Sai was a devotional Sufi number.

It was rendered by Bela Shende, and was the longest of the 13 tracks from 99 Songs on this blog – it was half-a-dozen minutes and three seconds long.

Munna Shaukat teamed up with Navneet Virk to pen the song, which was composed by A R Rahman, who released it as a single in three languages (viz., Hindi, Tamil and Telugu*) on April 5, 2019.

However, only the Hindi version, which was the original, featured on the soundtrack album of the film.

(*Note: The film was a trilingual.)

Ms Shende rendered this lullaby

Bela Shende rendered a couple of tracks from 99 Songs.

If they were to be arranged in the alphabetical order, as well as in the ascending order of their durations, O Mera Chand would be the first – the track was four minutes and 16 seconds long.

Just when Hindi film music buffs had ascertained that lullabies – which featured on many a soundtrack in the Golden Era – were no longer likely to be a part of any film, A R Rahman composed this song.

And, of course, the man credited with penning it was Navneet Virk.   

Mr Singh stole the show

O Aashiqa – the track from 99 Songs that was guaranteed to give the listeners goosebumps – was five minutes and 24 seconds long.

The man who penned it was Navneet Virk, and the composer, of course, was A R Rahman.

By no means would be incorrect to state that all ears were on the Sing(h)er – Shashwat, who happens to be an alumnus of Chennai’s K M Music Conservatory, the higher education institution which was founded by the A R Rahman Foundation, and offers full-time and part-time courses in Hindustani and Western classical music and music technology.    

Raftaar wasn’t just the Sing(h)er

Although it would be appropriate to categorise Nayi Nayi, from 99 Songs, as a hard rock song (for the want of a genre), it also featured a rap portion by Raftaar, who was one of the two men who penned it.

No prizes for guessing that Navneet Virk was the other.

The man who sang the remainder of the A R Rahman composition, which was four minutes and 52 seconds long, was Shashwat Singh.

Ranjit Barot, Warren Mendonsa and Ardeshir Mistry were the back-up vocalists.

The song’s highlight was the tabla cameo in the middle.

The popular Singh sang (Arij)it

I had refrained from writing a post on the male version of Jwalamukhi from 99 Songs so far, because I wanted to start the new decade with tracks by new voices.

But I’ve done so now, because there’s no two ways about the fact that the track – which was penned by Navneet Virk and composed by A R Rahman – was outstanding.

(Arij)It was rendered by the more popular Mr Singh, and released on February 20, 2020.

This version of the track was shorter than the female version – it was four minutes and eight seconds long.  

Poorvi sang it with Shashwat

The soundtrack of 99 Songs featured two versions of Jwalamukhi.

The female version of the track was rendered by Poorvi Koutish.

The Sing(h)er who joined her behind the microphone was Shashwat.

It was the longer of the two versions of the track – it was five minutes and seven seconds long.

No prizes for guessing it was penned by Navneet Virk and composed by A R Rahman.

The song, which was mastered in Dolby Atmos (a surround sound technology), was the more recent of its two versions to be released – it released on February 26, 2020.

It was a cl‘AAS’ apart

If the 13 tracks from 99 Songs (2020) on this blog were arranged in the alphabetical order, Gori Godh Bhari would be the first.

The track, which Navneet Virk penned, was four minutes and 49 seconds long.

It was composed by A R Rahman, and was based on Raga Bageshri.

Alka Yagnik was the most famous of the trio who rendered it.

The others were Anuradha Sriram and Shweta Mohan.

The highlights of the song’s orchestration were the sarod (by Sarang Kulkarni), the sitar (by Asad Khan), the shehnai (by Omkar Dhumal) and the tabla.