Chiggy Wiggy | Kylie Minogue, Sonu Nigam, Suzanne: The song created especially for a promotional music video purpose, has Kylie who will appear in the music video with Akshay crooning her Chiggy Wiggy way that somewhat reminds you of Deep within the Bamboo grove. But as this is Rahman’s track, you can always expect something new in it. Listen to halfway of the song and enter Sonu Nigam with an out-of-the-blue bhangra rhythm, now this is fusion of a high-order. Inovative-ness hardly comes in a better package. I am hooked to the 45 second segment from 2:15 to 3:00. The western sections suit Kylie fine, and the bhangra section suits Akshay’s image fine. You can already imagine how the music video is gonna be now. A good track which will take some time to be liked.

Aaj Dil Gustakh | Sukhwinder Singh, Shreya Ghosal :  Aaj Dil, which is a fire and ice duet featuring Sukhwinder Singh and Shreya Ghoshal. Nothing is predictable about this song which draws inspiration from jazz, Carnatic, funk and what have you! Just like dozens of Rahman songs heard in the past, this one takes its own time to register with the listener. Not at all an easy song to have been composed, written and sung, that has a slight Western touch to it. In the first few hearing ‘Aaj Dil’ appears to be a late 90s style composition by Rahman but after a dozen odd hearing, the song just sits pretty much in your head and it is impossible to get rid of this addictive tune. Shreya Ghoshal gets into on a smouldering, sensuous avtar as she croons to Mayur Puri’s evocative lyrics, ably supported by Singh. What also stand out are the guitar and bass lines. The pace, groove, melody and the vocals come together by design in Aaj Dil to make you go Oooh yeah !

Aaj Dil Gustakh

Fiqrana | Vijay Prakash, Shreya Ghosal

Thumbs up icon ! Fiqraana is phenomenal and pick of the lot.The song instantly sucks you into its groove and takes us through an exhilarating ride of rhythm and melody, right from the moment the main guitar riff starts to loop around your ears. How does a composer choose a certain sounding guitar? Rahman hits it bang on target with the choice of instrument for that guitar motif that ends each stanza and begins the interlude. The sound of the guitar and the melody played on it are ridiculously funky and hooky. The Rahmantic moment of the song arrives with the melody that swirls around on the lines `Jeet-te hain adh adh ka hum’. The song as a whole with it never ending rhythm, completely sweeps you off your feet and makes your heart jump with joy.

Bhoola Tujhe | Rashid Ali

The song crooned by Rashid Ali is a poignant offering and is slow in pace initially. But the tempo gradually increases. It has a unique quality that strikes a chord with the listener and Rahman spins his magic yet again. The usage of saxophones as much as keyboard beats adds a new dimension to it. One would have expected the music of a thriller like Blue to be all fun and frolic but ‘Bhoola Tujhe’ surprisingly turns out to be a slow and sad number about the protagonist who is wondering aloud about things that went wrong in his life.

Blue Theme

A core situational song which can’t be expected to go beyond the narrative of the film. If you were to love this song, it takes a real romantic ear to capture the essence. If you have that, you’ll simply fall in love with this.

Blue Theme | Blaaze, Raqeeb Aalam, Sonu Kakkar, Neha Kakkar, Jaspeert Singh, Dilshad

When the `Blue Theme’ was heard first in the teaser, I thought that Rap bit would instantly bounce off from the very beginning but interestingly there is a prelude to the Rap which is more interesting than the actual theme. A Killer Mix fully programmed by Deepak P.A. Kudos to Deepak for that. The song takes lots of twists and turns with varied rhythms of folk, rap, pop, hip-hop and rock parading one after the other with all of thump. Amidst all the shouting, rapping, Rahman has stuffed a genuine melody sung by Sonu Kakkar which borders on Sufi. By the end, the tempo increases a few notches above normal and reaches its peak at the very end, when the songs starts to fade. At last, when you hear the shout of Blue on reverb, you know you’re going to listen to it again. Yet another exceptional ditty in Rahman’s kitty! Did I actually rhyme the two? Wow!

Rehnuma | Shreya Ghosal, Sonu Nigam

Melody and the trademark Rahman feel is back with Rehnuma, this one featuring Shreya Ghoshal, who gets to eat more three-fourths of the cake; which means that she gets to sing in most part of the song. And rest assured, when she sings, your hair starts to stand, and once she starts crooning ‘Qaatil Adaa’ in her seductive avatar. The flashy orchestration adds more attitude, style to the substance that is truly western. Shreya Ghosal and Sonu Nigam sing the lines incredibly without ever sounding like an Indian voice soaked and trained in Indian classical music, they have poured sweat, heart and soul into this song. The song relies more or less on the heavy orchestration that Rahman constantly uses for such songs – a recipe that guarantees complete success for the song. The crescendos with multi overlapping layers of Rehnuma chants, guitar motif and the string section are perfectly placed and are just out of the world, though you wish sound mixing could have been much better – rarest of complaints on a Rahman’s song.

Yaar Mila Tha | Udit Narayanan, Madushree, Ujjayinee Roy

Udit Narayan makes a comeback to the playback scene after quite a while with ‘Yaar Mila Tha’. He is joined by Madhushree, whose cinnamon flavoured honeyed voice is a perfect foil for his flat sweetness. Somewhere between hip-hop, reggae and masala, this track hangs in the balance, waiting to be leavened with the addition of some spunky jhatkas. At the start, one starts to wonder if the track is going to be any good, but as the song starts progressing, second-by-second, and the beats start, you will be completely blown away by the feel of the song. The arrangements yet again are something to talk about – watch out for the synthesized Shehnai, and the delicate piano in the background. The beats are eclectic and electrifying, and, coupled with the percussions, make for just the right sound and that rare experiment which clicks, and keeps growing over you after each listen.

Team behind Blue

Being Rahman’s first album post his Oscar win, there were great expectations of this album, but on the other side there was also that this was an Akshay Kumar movie and Akshay movies are not exactly known for their musical exquisiteness. Given that situation Rahman has given an ideal soundtrack, though not his best, a definite entertainer. And even while churning out such albums, Rahman makes sure that his music does indeed stand out from the ordinary.

Music Rating

= very fine – well worth your hard earned cash.

ALBUM CREDITS

• TRUMPET: KISHORE SODHA
• SHENNAI: BALESH
• DHOLAK: CHINNA PRASAD
• MANDOLIN: SEENU
• STRINGS: CHENNAI STRINGS ORCHESTRA
• STRINGS CONDUCTED BY: V J SRINIVAS MURTHY
• ADDITIONAL PROGRAMMING: T.R. KRISHNA CHETAN, HENTRY KURUVILLA , DEEPAK P.A
• ADDITIONAL VOCALS SUPERVISED BY: SRINIVAS
• RECORDED IN CHENNAI: PANCHATHAN RECORD INN, AM STUDIO
• SOUND ENGINEERS: S.SIVA KUMAR, DEEPAK P.A, KANNAN GANPAT, SURESH PERUMAL, VIVIANE CHAIX, MOHAMMED SAFIULLAH
• MUMBAI: BLUE FROG, NIRVANA STUDIO
• SOUND ENGINEER: PUNEET SAMTANI
• LONDON: FOR KYLE MINOGUE – PHIJ ADAMS
• MIXED AT PANCHATHAN RECORD INN, AM STUDIO BY DEEPAK P.A & K.J. SINGH
• MASTERED AT AM STUDIO BY S. SIVAKUMAR
• MUSICIAN FIXER: SAMIDURAI
• MUSIC CO-ORDINATED BY: NOELL JAMES AND FAIZUDDIN T. M.
• ALL SONGS PRODUCED BY A.R.RAHMAN