A Review on the music of Yuva

Music Director: A.R. Rahman
Lyrics: Mehboob
Music Rights to: Venus Records & Tapes Pvt. Ltd.
Maximum Retail Price (CD): RS. 125/-

I?m assuming everyone would know the meaning of the word Yuva. Yes ? YOUTH. And boy, oh boy, this album does have an amazing appeal especially for the ?yuva? folks around. There are 6 tracks in all and trust me, all of them stand out in their own classy way. We all know that when A.R. Rahman teams up with Mani Ratnam, we are assured of excellence. Hey, don?t think I am exaggerating! I have instances from this team to back my statement, ?A.R. Rahman + Mani Ratnam = the real music?. Examples: Roja and Bombay. Alright, I can picture heads nodding in agreement. Thank You.

Yuva has some powerful, some sweet, some weird lyrics by Mehboob. There?s a lot of usage of Urdu words which makes the listening-experience pretty nice. I am a complete novice when it comes to knowing the meaning of Urdu words. Believe it or not, some of Yuva?s songs made me open an Urdu dictionary online so that I could know the meaning of the words used. The songs compelled me to learn Urdu!

The track list goes like this:

1- ?Dhakka Laga Bukka? sung by A.R. Rahman, Karthik and Mehboob
2- ?Khuda Hafiz? sung by Sunitha Sarathy, Lucky Ali and Karthik
3- ?Kabhi Neem Neem? sung by Madhushree and A.R. Rahman
4- ?Dol Dol? ? an instrumental: Rap & lyrics by blaze, ethnic vocals by Shaheen Badar
5- ?Baadal? sung by Adnan Sami and Alka Yagnik
6- ?Fanaa? sung by A.R. Rahman, Sunitha Sarathy and Tanvi

My personal favourite out of the six is Khuda Hafiz, but I love listening to Fanaa over and over again as well. Dhakka Laga Bukka is an out-n-out guys? song, very weird lyrics that go like ~dhakka laga Bukka , khaega re mukka, hat jao, hat jao re?hat hat hat hat hat hat hat hat hat?banja re banja mashal-e-raah, o yuva yuva?o yuvaaa~ .

Khuda Hafiz ? a duet is very catchy and well sung by Lucky Ali. The female voice in the song seems to have made the song very popular, the voice of Sunitha Sarathy is fresh, new, different and jazzy. She has that ?sexy? ring to her voice which is very attractive.

Kabhi Neem Neem, the song that is already on the television for the promos of Yuva, features Rani Mukherji and Abhishek Bachchan. The song is sweet and has a village-feel to it. It is about a woman singing to her man and the punch line of this song seems to be ~Lajja se mare re ye jeeya~, the lyrics reflect the innocence and sweetness of a woman in love.

Dol Dol is a fast-paced instrumental which any dancer would love dancing to. It?s pretty fast and has the typical A.R. Rahman feel to it, great rhythm.

Baadal didn?t really appeal me as much as the rest of the tracks when I initially heard it but now it has started to grow on me, it?s kind of slow but nice. Adnan Sami fans won?t be disappointed. Now we come to the last track of the album which is Fanaa. Well, Fanaa means ?destruction, death/mortality? and the lyrics go like ~hone do dil ko Fanaa, hone do dard ko tabah, udne do har ek wo tamanna.. Aao na , aao na, aao no ? hona hai fanaa~, it has that rebellious feel to it and is a good song to headbang to! Yes, I tried it. Yes, it was fun.

That?s about Yuva. Well, according to me it?s a MUST buy like almost every A.R. Rahman album. I was lucky I got an A.R. Rahman Hits CD free along with the CD of Yuva.

If you are very patient ? you can wait for a few more days and then buy the album. I, thankfully, am not that patient; I bought Yuva as soon as the company released the audio and I?m still listening to it. The songs still sound VERY GOOD.

Khuda Hafiz ;)

Best time to play this is when:

Driving