Music Review: Saaho

Album:

Saaho

Composer: Badshah,

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy

, Guru Randhawa, Tanishk Bagchi

Music Review: Don’t know about the film, but what makes Saaho’s songs click is that it has many music composers and singers throwing in their bit — making it a mish-mash of genres, styles, instrumentation and voices. Each singer’s quirk (like Shankar Mahadevan’s extending of the tune), every composer’s signature (Tanishk Bagchi’s love for techno, for instance), have come together to bind the album into a tuneful and fun medley, where the dips are balanced by the highs, by all of them. The singers are good (Anirudh Ravichander’s in on this one, too), and Karky, who’s translated the Hindi lyrics to Tamil to suit our sensibilities, has managed to keep the tune and even the phonetics in many places.

The first, and the most popular is Kadhal Psycho. Anirudh, Dhvani Bhanushalia and Tanishk have given voice — it’s Tanishk’s music, too. Heavy on bass, this one’s going to be a dance floor favourite for quite a while — the beats are evenly paced, and the song’s hook line loops on in the mind. The second song, Mazhaiyum Theeyum, is in place of Enni Soni. The voice and music of Guru Randhawa have been retained, with Haricharan and Shakthisree Gopalan taking it forward in Tamil (words by Karky). The synths, the guitar and the beats all come together beautifully in this soft, romantic number. However, you’re left comparing Randhawa’s voice with Haricharan’s — and which one’s better is quite debatable. Bad Boy, sung by Badshah, Benny Dayal and Sunitha Sarathy, has music by Badshah, and lyrics by Vignesh ShivN. This song, though quite fast and catchy, is perhaps the weak link in this album. The last one, Unmai Edhu Poy Edhu has been sung by Shweta Mohan and Shankar Mahadevan, and penned by Karky. Music is by Shankar Ehsaan Loy, and one can tell that difference with the way the song romances the piano. It’s slow, soft, and quite easy on the ears.

All in all, all of Saaho’s songs are quite hummable. But do they go together as an album? Maybe not, because there is no one thread linking them all, except for the lead actors — Prabhas and Shraddha, and the fact that you know that these songs are from the same film. And that’s because each composer and lyricist involved has tried to take the song their way, and the singers have tried to pull it towards them. Add to it a multi-lingual touch, and there you go — nothing gels, while each piece stands out.