Gulal | The Music Review | Anurag Kashyap’s next Movie

Thursday, March 5, 2009


Dev D.’s soundtrack gave me sleepless nights; not that it scored a new high in the purity of music but for the fact that it broke the genre barrier. It got onto me and a lot of other people – its mediocrity were its biggest virtue and it won hearts as well as heads. The movie may have had extreme reactions and opinions – the music surely stood out for reasons that are not very common. There was something about it – which is hard to explain and appreciate but you could for sure sense it if you poured yourself into it.

I wasn’t aware the next from the maverick maniac would come up so soon. So I was pleasantly surprised to know that OST for Gulal was out. Interestingly, Gulal is as original as it gets!

Again the music is not mainstream – which probably is the highpoint. Gulal is an experiment which unfortunately does not happen very often. It is Anurag Kashyap’s attempt to bring Poetry to Cinema. Before we go further, let’s get it right – it’s not your everyday dose of contemporary music. It is honest to what it is supposed to be.

Some research reveals – Gulal is a tribute to the song Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaaye to kya hai in the movie Pyasa by the poet and lyricist Sahir Ludhyanwi. Campus Politics is used as the vehicle to drive the story. It has been under production for many years now and the director has had a tough time struggling with the Censor Board.

Talking of the music, Lyrics take the centre stage. The movie has heavy influence of the Chaayawaad era of Hindi Poetry. Apparently the works of Suryakant Tripathi “Nirala”, Sumitranandan Pant, Mahadevi Verma and Jaishankar Prasad seems to the motivation behind. The mood is “Veer Ras” or the poetry meant for the battlefield.

I know you are surprised to read all of this in a music review. But I warned you – this is not your everyday dose of music. The music director Piyush Mishra simply weaves magic around his own words and uses the lesser heard voices in Bollywood that score very high in terms of their singing talent. For some reason I think it’s as much his movie as it is Anurag’s. He has acted, given music and written the lyrics for the same.

I know I am expected to talk about the eight tracks (not 18 this time!). But I want you to go out and explore. I am sure I have made it clear beyond doubt that if you enjoy variety in your music – if you like chewing the lyrics of the music that you hear – and if you understand Hindi (read “Bhavaarth”) this is the soundtrack you should not miss. I am sure by now people who want to hear this would have been excited. For the rest, there would always be a lot of pop music- that too just around the corner. Would be happy to see your comments on the Soundtrack! :)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

duniya...is awesome...i m hypnotized.....sadden...devasted...great ...still optimistic....jaisi bachi hai waisi ki waisi bachalo ye duniya....wow...
dipak

Anonymous said...

As you have perfectly described
- Lyrics centered , new voices, amazing music, amazing style

Every song is capable of bringing out an emotion in conspicuous proportions - a characteristic of Indian classical raagas

Anonymous said...

'Aarambh Hai Prachand' reminds me of 'Veer tum badhe chalo...', 'Kshama Shobhti Uss Bhujang Ko...' type of Veer-Ras Poetry. Really nice and provocative!

Kunaal said...

The song yaara maula gives me a chill whenever I hear it. It seems as the lyrics are speaking to me... Awesome

Anonymous said...

hey ...u forgot ramdhari singh dinkar...excerpts from his poems hav been picked up verbatim...(remember krishna ki chetavani)

Unknown said...

I have been following bollywood music for at least 20 yrs. But I can bet there has never been such a perfect album......... There are only 3 people in this class..... Gulzar ji,Vishal bharadwaj and Piysh mishra.... The best tribute to Sahil ji and Guru dutt ji is "YE DUNIYA AGAR MIL BHI JAAYE TO KYA HAI", in this era of remix......... awesome.....

Sudhanshu said...

in fact, all small lyrical talks by Piyush were more impressive.... like sale hai sale hai or sarfaroshi ki tammanna......pure raw energy

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