MUSIC OF A LIFETIME!!. Review on Dil Se Songs

I have been listening to all kinds of Bollywood music over the years and have a huge collection of Audio CDs and tapes at my place. When there was no internet in India, I had this habit of getting all the popular and melodious songs of that time recorded by my local tapewallah in a single tape and listen to it all day. When I got internet at my place, I started this habit of downlaoding latest and classic songs from different music sites. I still buy albums, audio CDs and tapes of any good album which releases, but one which I will always treaure is a masterpiece album called Dil Se which is arguably the finest I have ever heard.

Pardon me for saying that. There may be some who will not agree to me, especally the ones who believe in OLD IS GOLD and have grown up on singings of Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, Mohd. Rafi, Mukesh the great and Manna Dey. But here's an album which gives competition to all the olden classical songs which still haunt us even decades after they came.

Its an album which proves why Rehman is a genius music director who is by far the best we have in industry today. Dil Se is certainly his finest work till date and I doubt if there will ever be another album by him which can equal the magical quality of its songs let alone surpass it. All the songs, apart from having an outstanding composition, are lyrical gems penned by the amazing Gulzaar saab. They simply make you fall in love with the way they have been composed and penned. And frankly I have never heard such beautful lyrics over the years. The classical combo of Rehman-Gulzar-Lata Mangeshkar was publicised so much before the album's release. It not only met people's expectations but surpassed them by leaps and bounds and the album became the best selling music of that year.

Talking about the songs, the lyrics of the album are in as many as four different languages - Hindi, Urdu, Tamil and Punjabi. There are six songs in total, and each of them was amazing in its own way:

1) Chaiyya Chaiyya - With typical Rehman beats and a heavy usage of Urdu, it was shot with the background of Shahrukh Khan and item girl Malaika Arora jumping on the top of a train with several other dancers. It became a rage of that time, and was a favourite at discs and parties. It was sung by Sukhwinder Singh and Sapna Awasthi and the former shot to fame with his first song itself.

Jinke Sar Ho Ishq Ki Chaaon

Paanv Ke Neeche Jannat Hogi

Chal chaiyya chaiyya chaiyya chaiyya

woh yaar hai jo khushbu ki tarah

woh jiski zubaan urdu ki tarah

woh yaar mera saiyya saiyya

2)Dil Se re: Sung by A.R. Rehman with a combination of a desi and Hollywoodish feel to it, it was a major highlight of the album. Brilliantly sung, with words that flow like the smoothness of a river, it reflected Rehman's true brilliance as a music director and Gulzar's lyrical mastery.

Ek sooraj nikla tha

kuch paaya pighla tha

ek aandhi aayi thi

jab dil se aah nikli thi

Dil se re..

3) E Ajnabee: The best song of the lot, according to me. It had everything going right for it and you just can't choose one aspect which was better than the rest in this "once of a lifetime" kind of song. Udit Narayan hadn't sung better than this, Lyrics cant get better than this and the use of a single music instrument almost throughout cannot be used better than this.

Roz roz resham si hawa,

aate jaate kehti hai bata resham si hawa kehti hai bata

woh jo doodh dhuli masoom kali

wah hai kahaan kahaan hai

woh roshni kahan hai

woh chaand si kahaan hai

mai adhoora tu adhoori ji rahein hain..

4) Satrangi Re: This song reflects passion. be it picturization or the musical intensity of it. Brilliantly sung by Sonu Nigam as usual, it was my second favourite in the album.

Teri raahon mein uljha uljha hoon

teri baahon mein uljha uljha

suljhane de hosh mujhe

teri chahon mein uljha hoon

mera jeena junoon mera marna junoon

ab iske siva nahi koi sukoon

5) Jiya Jale: Lata Mangeshkar magic works yet again. Though I didn't find it as good as other brilliant songs of the album, it was a great one on its own, efortlessly sung and penned and composed as well.

Jiya jale jaan jale

naino tale raat bhar dhuan jale

janoo na janoo na janoo na sake

6) Thaiyya Thaiyya - This was the only song which was not picturized in the film. But it was in a class of its won with some beautiful Punjabi lyrics and almost the same composition as of Chaiyya Chaiyya.

There are very few albums where music reaches out to a wide variety of cultures, traditions and people. Dil Se is one such album with a universal feel to it. It can be enjoyed not only by a metrosexual person driving his way to work, but also by a small town clerk listening to it in his toota phoota radio, after a tiring day at work. Thats Dil Se for you.

My Dil se tape doesn't work now.. Its been ghisofied by repeated hearings.. Im planning to buy it again soon :)