At a local music store, most of the shelves under the 'New releases' category are occupied by CDs and cassettes of Anurag Basu's new offering,
Metro.
I go on to pick my copy, and while making the payment, the cashier guy curiously asks, 'Have you heard the songs of
Metro?' I nod in negative. He continues, 'The songs are awesome. They are very, very, soothing.'
The man at the music shop, as I later discover, was quite right.
Metro with its eclectic cast and meticulously put together score by Pritam (and friends or Band Metro as the CD inlay refers to it) is pretty darn impressive.
Starring Kay Kay Menon, Shilpa Shetty, Konkana Sen Sharma, Shiney Ahuja, Irrfan Khan, Sharman Joshi and Kangana Ranaut, the film is scheduled for a May release.
Band Metro sums up the presence of Pritam (music production, compositions, guitar, back-up vocals), James (vocals, guitar), Soham (vocals), Suhail (vocals), Niladri (sitar), Kalyan Baruah (guitar/blues harp), Jim Satya (keyboards), Titu (drums/percussion) and Eric Pillai (engineer, mixing, mastering).
The soundtrack takes off on a soulful and free spirited note with
In dino. It's inherent feel-good quality and sunny tones coupled with Soham's heartfelt singing set the bar for the album. For a change, the remix, by Bunty Rajput, with its gingery overtones, is noteworthy too.
KK's high strung rendition of
Alvida is stirring and sensational. The anger and anguish of its context is so explicitly conveyed by both the singer and the dramatic play of guitar and sitar. Powerful stuff, this -- the more you hear