No One Killed Jessica : No One Can Match Amit

Its unlike the good old days of music when the music directors were able to slip in their signature style in the variety of music they produced. The race to be excellent has made sure that each music director is able to churn out different music for every film. If you go through the hits of 2010, the music directors have not been able to have the “Punjabi theka” or “Heer” of Lakshmikant Pyarelal, the “flanger” on guitar and the break rhythm patterns of RD Burman, the violin and clarinet of OP Nayyar. Yet, there is one music director who has been able to slip in his signature in almost all his songs, right from the beginning. Toutejavascript:void(0)d as the new Rahman – Amit Trivedi.

Amit is a 31 year old music composer with some amazing scores to his credit – the small budget “Aamir” directed by Rajkumar Gupta where “Haan Reham” and “Chakkar Ghumyo” are two songs which got everybody’s attention. His big break came in the form of super-excellent cinema called Dev.D. In fact Anurag Kashyap is so impressed with Amit’s understanding of music that he introduced Amit to Rajkumar and got him to compose the music. Dev. D was a milestone, as the signature style of Amit Trivedi was formed in this film and for that he also won the national award for best music in a feature film. Another cult hit of Amit was a song called ‘Ektaara” from Wake Up Sid. This song in both female and male version was the essence of the film and hence, the song won him many more accolades. His last film Aisha was a super-uber version of Jane Austin’s Emma set in the rich contours of Delhi with a farm house and weekend to Kasauli culture oozing along with shopping for top of the line phoren brand of clothes in stylish malls. Amit’s music of a foot thumping title track and a uber-Punjabi hit “Gal Mithi Mithi Bol” became the sound of the nation. The film didn’t do well for different reasons but the song continues to appear on charts.

Amit’s latest offering and again with Rajkumar Gupta is the super controversial film called “No One Killed Jessica” which is more in the news because of alleged cold war between the lead actresses Rani Mukherjee and Vidya Balan than the storyline. In almost all the songs, you hear Amit’s signature style so prominent at display that after the first two tracks you seem to lose yourself in the album and each track plays independently on your mind.

It starts with a stylish uptempo track “Dilli”. Only Amit can pull off a track which starts with a heavy guitar riff and then the vocals doing D…D….D….D….Dilli…Dilli. Amit’s genius comes in to play where the words penned by an old associate of Amit’s Amitabh Bhattacharya bring the life and times of Delhi. The folkish lyrics which say “Kaad kaleja Dilli” and Amit’s Rock influence on the song gives that “Akkhad” flavor of Dilliwala. Clear distinction in the sound also comes from off beat voices of Tochi Raina, Aditi Sharma. The song not only impresses in the first hearing but it gradually grows on you so much that the only thing that you end up humming is D….D….D….Dilli….Dilli. The headbangers ball should be rocking with this track soon. It is so distinct than the Dilli of Rahman’s Dilli -6 that you wonder if the younger prodigy has looked at Delhi in a different light than Rahman.

The next track is used for Rani Mukherjee who plays a brave journalist in the film. This is her signature track and boy, what a track this one is. Truly earthy, truly simple and truly amazing and fantastic lyrics which define the character in words like “Chal hatt”/ Munh tod de/ halkat/ munhfat/ saali re/ gaali re/ mawali re and such interest arousing lyrics which goes to the extent of Patloon mein junoon hai. The song has a unique rhythm pattern to it and thus while it is very interesting to listen to, it is difficult to sing along. In the movie, Rani Mukherjee’s entry is where the song is used hence, it works with visual. In isolation, the track is interesting because of the weird lyrics rahu ya phir ketu ki hai aadhi gharwali/ temper hai bhayankar etc. In my opinion this is more Amitabh Bhattacharya’s song than Amit’s song.

Track 3 – Aitbaar by sung by Vishal Dadlani is so rockfish that it sounds cacophonic. May be the thread of the film is what is defining this song. While Vishal himself is a great rock singer, this song clearly is not one of his best songs. Nor Amit has been able to do justice to this song.

One of my two favorites from this album is Dua sung by Indian Idol contestant Meenal Jain and a host of other singers like Raman Mahadevan (no relation to Shankar except for that he has sung a couple of songs for Shankar), Joi Baruah and the lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya himself. This song gives me goose bumps. The chord progression and the haunting chorus accentuate the feeling of the song. My personal thinking is that this song is used to show the candle march at Indian Gate. Use of guitars has somehow done more damage to the song than adding to it. It is a short coming with most of the rock songs in the world. Rock music is an expression of self for the musicians and it inherently it is an extends to issues pertaining to the society. Rock exudes pain but at times the instrumentation puts the lyrics on the back seat. This is exactly what happens to this song towards the end.

Second favorite is sung by none other Shilpa Rao. For those who know her or have had the chance to meet her. She is sweet little pretty looking girl but I think something that recording room and the mic does to her where that little girl transforms in to a power house of sorts. The range of her voice is amazing and once again the chords that Amit uses are an apt fit for the song. The song with amazing lyrics is a solitary cry of a woman fighting in the unfair world of men. Amit uses Cello and violin with so much affinity that as a listener I can feel the soul of the song, I can feel the soul of the character on my skin.

Honestly, none of the songs are hum along songs and will find it difficult to get in to the most popular and mass category but the compositions are world class, arrangement is mind blowing and both lyrics and the singing complement each other. This album has the potential to turn in to a collector’s item only if the film works. If the film is able to do 100% justice to the original incident, which I am sure it will, the music will go places with the film. In isolation, on the other hand, the album may not find traction with its listeners. Fans of Amit like me will follow the album all the while and in fact “Dilli” is one of the drive time favorites, how much an average listener will lap it up is a thing that needs to be seen.