Music Review: Bombay Velvet (Hindi)

Composer(s): Amit Trivedi, Mikey McCleary
Listen to the songs online here: Saavn

Sung separately by Shalmali Kholgade, Neeti Mohan and Shefali Alvares, the jazzy Mohabbat Buri Bimari appears in three different versions, the remix variant by Mikey McCleary curiously titled Version 1. Nevertheless fantastically waltzy and superb! Running short of nine minutes, the opening clarinet bit in Aam Hindustani paves way for some solid retro-brass-percussion before settling for a slow rhythmic groove at around 3:20 mark. And Shefali Alvares, for her part, astounds with a superlative singing. Her third song Shut Up goes full-on jazz, with the saxophone and trumpets (or horns?) giving her the perfect company. Papon, one of the two male voices in the entire soundtrack, owns the melodious Darbaan, while Mohit Chauhan and Neeti Mohan are appositely first-rate in the relatively contemporary duet Behroopia.

Neeti Mohan in fact gets four additional solo pieces, with Ka Kha Gha and Naak Pe Gussa imbibing the recurring jazz motif with gusto and Neeti doing a fabulous job with her rendition. Sylvia's retro-styled metronomic arrangements are a major plus, but it's in Dhadaam Dhadaam where Neeti really shines, singing the sweeping melancholic tune like only she can. The arrangements are pitch-perfect to boot, especially at the lines Dhadkanein Dhadaam Dhadaam...! What follows next are three brilliant instrumentals, an intriguing guitar-based theme song, a gripping Conspiracy and a thoroughly jazzy and enjoyable Tommy Gun. Amit Trivedi's Bombay Velvet is a great album sonically speaking, yet I am left somewhat unsatisfied. There's something amiss, a lack of a true wow factor.

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