Rahman composed and S(hasha)ang it

If the four tracks from Mili in my collection were arranged in the alphabetical order, Tum Bhi Raahi would be the last.

And if they were arranged in the descending order of their durations, it would be the second – it was four minutes and 16 seconds long.

The involvement of the one and only A R Rahman in the song was not restricted to composing it, but he happened to be one of the two people who lent their voices to it too.

The other was Shashaa Tirupati.

The song was written by Javed Akhtar.

Shashaa was the go-‘tu’ singer

Hututu is an indigenous game that seems to have caught the fancy of many a person associated with Hindi film music.

And the latest to join the list – which includes the likes of Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Gulzar – was none other than A R Rahman.

Of course, he knew hu tu turn to (read: who to turn to) to render the song – the lady chosen for that job was Shashaa Tirupati.

Amitabh Bhattacharya – a KISSer when it comes to lyrics (because he keeps it simple, silly!) – wrote the song, which was three minutes and 52 seconds long.

They did a fantASTic job

Rait Zara Si – from Atrangi Re – was four minutes and 51 seconds long.

It wouldn’t be incorrect to state that, in a sense, the song was metaphorical.

That was because its title could be translated to, “A little sand”.

And nowadays, most Hindi film songs slip out of our memories like sand through our fingers.

But this song was unlikely to suffer the same fate as those, because it was penned by Irshad Kamil, and composed by A R Rahman.

Moreover, (Arij)it was rendered by Mr Singh and Shashaa Tirupati, who did an outstanding job.

(Arij)It was rendered by Shashaa

On one hand, the decision of Sushant Singh Rajput to take his own life – cutting short a promising career – is deeply baffling, and on the other, it is a post about a song that inspires people to live life to the fullest (Khulke Jeene Ka).

The track, from Dil Bechara, was composed by A R Rahman, and was four minutes and half-a-dozen seconds long.

(Arij)It was rendered by Mr Singh, who was joined behind the microphome by Shashaa Tirupati.

By no means would it be incorrect to state that Amitabh Bhattacharya penned an apt swan‘song’.

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.  

It wASn’t penned by Virk

Humnawaa was the shortest of the 13 tracks from 99 Songs on this blog – it was three minutes and 21 seconds long*.

It was the only song in the film that wasn’t penned by Navneet Virk. The lyrics were credited to Dilshad Shabbir Shaikh and Abhay Jodhpurkar (who was a discovery of none other than A R Rahman, who composed the track.)

The duo who shared singing credits was Armaan Malik and Shashaa Tirupati.

(*Note: Only the film’s instrumental piece – titled The Oracle – was shorter. It was three minutes and a couple of seconds long.)

Rahman and Tirupati S(hasha)alvaged it

By no means would it be incorrect to say that A R Rahman, who didn’t just compose, but also rendered O Sona Tere Liye, salvaged the soundtrack of Mom.

The song was five minutes and 20 seconds long.

Ms Tirupati Sh(asha)ared singing credits with him.

It is not difficult to picture a sales executive mouthing a pitch on the lines of, “O listeners, aap ke liye... Ek soul-stirring song.”

Because, indeed, that is perhaps the best word (if not the only one) to describe the track, which was penned by none other than Irshad Kamil.

Tirupati S(hasha)ang this long song

Chal Kahin Door, the longest of the six songs composed by A R Rahman* in the film Mom, which released in 2017, was six minutes and 28 seconds long.

The track was penned by Irshad Kamil.

It was the longer of the two female solos in the film – it was rendered by Shashaa Tirupati, who was born in India and raised in Canada.

(*Note: Be Nazaara, the seventh track from the film, is not a post on this blog, because it was only programmed and arranged by Rahman. The song was rendered by Sudeep Jaipurwale.)