Better late than Never. Review on Chameli Songs

“Chameli” is one beautiful album that I missed to own and listen at the time of its release. But these days I am completely into its music. Thank god I listened to it at least now. It is always better late than never. This album is another inclusion in my long list of moon light melody albums (Parineeta, Reflection of Passion, Swarabishekam, Mughal–E- Azam, Kangalal Kaithi sei, Piya Basanti etc.,) which I prefer to listen while going to bed.

Unaware of whom the composer is, I was surprised to see the name of Sandesh Shandilya. I thought he is a great composer when I heard the album Piya Basanti and I thought here is a composer whose talents were little explored and used in bollywood. I don’t know what his other works are, can someone suggest me some of his other works. Let me come back to our business Review.

From what I have listened so far, Sandesh Shandilya is a very unique composer. He gives importance to catchy melodies than the catchy rhythms. His intention seems to not try something completely different with music instead he strives to do something so familiar, no native, so natural and yet haunting and long lasting. He strives for a soulful music and not for a unique sound. He takes utmost care on streaming the notes instead of engineering the sound which most other composers do these days. Simplicity has its own charm. Sandesh stormed my soul with his simple and minimal usage of orchestration. The vocal tune carries the song all along and the backing instrument just aids and adds beauty. Let me come back (again) to this album.

“Chameli” album has got 8 songs. I am saying that there are 8 songs though there are only 4 songs + repeated versions and an instrumental, because I didn’t skip even a single track though repeated. In addition to the music, the album gets its unique sound because of Sunidhi Chauhan. She has a versatile voice. She sounds completely different in different pitches. It is difficult to find that “Bhage rae” and “Sajna ve” are sung by the same singer. She sounds sensuous and silky in Bhage rae and vibrant and energetic in Sajna ve.

This is a kind of album on which there is not much to elaborate or ramble on except for one word “Beautiful” for the reason I mentioned in the previous paragraph. The real instruments dominate the tracks rather than loops and rhythms. The rhythms are subtle and adequate enough to perfectly synch with the melody. Anything you play on flute will sound soothing but think of if you play some really beautiful stream of notes it will sounds just divine and such a divine feel you get all through the “Bhaage rae” song which has ample amount of flute pieces shattered. And so is the usage of Saxophone in “Jaane” and its other versions. It is the best song in the album in my opinion. All the three versions are great and the instrumental version is just out of the world. Tala (Saxophone) has performed well in the instrumental. All the songs have catchy bass running in the background. “Sajna ve” is a nice rhythm number again with some emphasis on melody in the vocal tune. That is what we call a fast melody. The thing I like the most is even rhythm based numbers like “Yeh Lamha”, which makes us to tap our foot has no too many instruments to bang on our ears. Simplicity is omnipresent in the composition and that is what impressed me the most than anything else.

Go for it. Chameli album is a must buy.