the sounds of swades

The new ARR soundtrack to Ashutosh Gowariker's patriotic followup to Lagaan is a mixed bag. The sequence on Raaga is a saving grace. The first song yuu.N hii chalaa chal would be my pick. It's the longest song on the album (apparently), but ARR infuses enough in it to make it worth the while. My favourite (*just kidding*) singers Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik are involved (collectively) in the next four songs, of which ye taaraa vo taaraa and dekho naa are the "sleepers" (aka: ARR songs that just sending you nodding off), while aahistaa aahistaa has the strongest Lagaan hangover (strains of mitawaa) and sucks as a lullaby, and saawariyaa is a great melody that deserved a better singer (honestly, alka sucks). ye jo desh hai teraa is strangely mournful (was it the shahanaa_ii?) and ARR's (accent-tinged) rendition got me thinking of the song he did for Kannathil Muthamittal. Buried in that marsh is a raamaliilaa pal pal hai bhaarii that has interestingly familiar melody fragments (and strong echoes of o paalanahaare). And we wind up with two instrumental tracks. Not sure what I should make of this, but ARR's music is supposed to grow on you. So I might end up liking saawariyaa a bit more. Everything else (but yuu.N hii) might stay where it came from.