Dream come true. Review on Bombay Dreams - Brigade Road - Bangalore

Enchanting , mysterious , bold , colorful , stupendous , vibrant, fusion between Indian and Western music .. well these are some of the words that can describe Bombay Dreams the musical currently playing at London ( Sigh !!! I wish I was a Londoner ), but I was able to get access to the Music which was released last week in India. This play is a musical much akin to many which we would heard before like Faust , Phantom of the Opera , Evita, Cats and others. Andrew Lloyd Webber the modern day musical composer who has created Phantom of the Opera , Evita, Cats ,Jesus Christ Superstar and many more .. in the new era giving musicals a modern touch is the executive producer of this musical. The entire music though is composed by the Indian musical whiz A R Rahman , with lyrics penned by the famous Don Black. The musicians are a mix of Indians and Brits and the music has been mixed and created at Studios in London and Chennai.

Background

A background is very important to a listener of a musical much alike to the detailed story given to the viewer of any musical ( Pls watch Dil Chahta hai for details on a musical ). The perception towards a musical must be different as it has to convey the main storyline through its songs. Rahman has a beautiful ensemble of some fresh creations and this musical being related to Bollywood has re-created some of his Hindi Hits with English lyrics and we have one song in its original format .. Chaiyya Chaiyya. Many musicals including the celluloid musical Moulin Rouge had some rehashed songs .. these add to the initial curiosity of the musical itself. The reason this background was done was to ensure that each song is treated with merit and not with the fact that we have heard it before in our national and regional languages. As any musical the actors themselves sing the songs in this one Raza Jaffrey , Preeya Kalidas, Dalip Tahil and many others form the troupe. I am not concentrating much about the storyline as my review is on the music.

Getting on with the music let the Games begin !!!.

Side A

The cassette begins with Bombay Awakes which is a musical piece haunting and enchanting it starts with a single piece and then the orchestra joins in .. Lovely beginning. Bombay Dreams the title track comes next and is one of my favorites as you would find many more ahead. This song depicts a life on a Bombay Street , its vibrant and full of sounds.. you can hear the chitter chatter , the hawkers selling wares , eunuchs asking for their share of your money and so forth .. we get a glimpse of a rehash of Ishq bina but it fades off and the original track returns. All this is done with a masterly chorus and melody with a whole lot of instruments. I can hear the rhythm of Taal's ni main samajh gayi being used as well .If u carefully hear u can also hear sounds of '' Batliwale '' !!! very thoughtful this !!! This one is sung by a host of artistes including Rahman mixing his alaaps ..

Like an Eagle is sung by Raza Jaffrey and is depicts his ambitions which is to soar like a eagle .. well sung.. this one is again fast and vibrant with some brilliant chorus that takes your breath away. Raza adds some hindi words with his ''Stiff upperlip accent'' but is lovable. Loves never easy is sung by Raj ghatak who plays Sweetie the eunuch and is a straight rehash of Ishq Bina but sounds really sweet with its English undertones. Rahman has carefully removed the tabla bit and added in synthesizer percussion to it with a cute flute piece after every line and which extends and mixes with the song at the end.

Don't release me has the Bollywood baddie Dilip Tahil singing it . He is no stranger to singing ( he came out with an album some time back if u must know ) and is a part of the musical Evita ( Indian version of course !!! ) along with Sharon Prabhakar in Mumbai . This one is cute .. depicts the baddie he plays in the musical , a movie moghul .. impressive this one .. It starts with ''Chodna , nahi Chodna , mujhe kabhi kabhi nahi Chodna''. It has a nice Punjabi beat to it. Happy Endings has Preeya and Dilip who play Father, Daughter in this musical talking about many things about movies and the like. This one again is a straight rehash of Rangeela Re '' starting with '' Yaahi re yaahi re happy endings are here again ''.

Shakalaka Baby , which was originally made in Tamil, then in Hindi has finally been remodeled in an English version very well. The main para has been changed and sounds very appealing. Modern music has been used and this one is undoubtedly one of the best songs in the album. Oops did I speak too early coz the next one is great as well.. Are you sure want to be famous which is again sung by Raza and Preeya like the earlier song. Preeya plays assistant director and appraises Raza about the tough life in the movies .. great lyrics sung in typical musical style words stretched and sung .. The Rhythm in this song is mightily impressive it starts with a reed flute with claps along with it .. now that's innovative and then the other percussions join in ..

Side B

I could live here by Raza Jaffrey is a short song depicting his new house and his likeness towards it away from the slums where he has been living. Only Love is another sweet sung by Preeya ... this one floats along.. Next we have Chaiyya Chaiyya which is the same song with Hindi Lyrics , but has been treated a little by the master. Gone are the typical Hindi sounds .. the interlude with the Electric Guitar has a different music with it and also has a lovely simmering tune going on in the background.

Now we come to Salaam Bombay .. which is by far the best song in the Album. Rich with Percussions and a great orchestra to support which explains the lengths to which the song goes to .. the same line is sung in different planes coming back to the original plane. Not much lyrics here but it's a musical treat . Being confined to a bus I could not do my kinda jig for this song as I heard it. Closer than Ever by the lead singers is a rehash of Nahi Saamne tu from Taal and starts with a flute representation of the tune. Its not a smooth flowing as the original and it cannot be too as English music doesn't stretch much as Indian classical does. This is cute and floats along as well.

Ganesh is another percussionful treat , this one as far as I believe is used to show the festive Ganesh season. It has no lyrics again but some brilliant composition which makes you throw open your door and break into the joyous dance all of us do during Ganesh Festival in Mumbai .. I can almost smell the Gulal in this one !!! . The Journey Home by Raza is nice and slow the typical musical number rendered well by him.

Wedding Qawwali is as the title goes a qawwali at the wedding of the lead artistes .. Composed in typical Qawwali style sung by the versatile and Rahman's favorite Sukhwinder Singh who has also penned the lyrics for this one as its in Hindi.. The Punjabi like lyrics are very nice and this song has a nice feel with Rahman's Chords floating well in the background. Bombay Sleeps is a slow version of Bombay Awakes and the curtain closes ...

THE VERDICT

Innovative and brilliant , kudos to Rahman for this masterpiece.. The cassette is priced at Rs 100 . The Rs 295 priced CD comes with a VCD with the Shakalaka Video , some play footage and many more from the musical.

What I have to say well ... DON'T SIT AND READ FOLKS , GO GRAB A COPY ...

SALAAM RAHMAN