Pagglait/ film soundtrack

 

By Narendra Kusnur 

Album: Pagglait

Music: Arijit Singh

Lyrics: Neelesh Mishra

Genre: OTT film soundtrack

Label: Oriyon Music

Rating: *** 1/2

The soundtrack of the Netflix-distributed film Pagglait, singer Arijit Singh's first full-length venture as a music director, runs into 24 tracks over 93 minutes. While that sounds massive, there are a couple of disclaimers.

To begin with, 12 of these are instrumental tunes used as background music in the film. The remaining, written by Neelesh Mishra, comprise multiple versions of five basic songs under different names. Thus, you hear the same melody and words in 'Thode Kam Ajnabi', 'Thode Kam Ajnabi (Reprise)', 'Meera's Poem' and 'Radha's Poem'.

What sets them apart is that they feature different singers and have been arranged differently. While 'Meera's Poem' has been sung beautifully by Jhumpa Mondal and features rabab, 'Radha's Poem' features Chinmayi's voice and lush string arrangements. Himani Kapoor shines on the main version, which has melodious bansuri, and is joined by Arijit on the 'Reprise'.

Neeti Mohan is joined by Sunny M.R. on 'Dil Udd Ja Re', whereas Meghna Mishra and Arijit sing the 'Revisited' version, which has smooth guitar lines and a marvellous outro. The lines "Khwahishen toh karte hain, zindagi se darte hain, doobte ubarte hain, toote jo taare, roothe hain saare" stay on like an earworm.

Flashes of Arijit's compositional brilliance are seen on 'Phire Faqeera', an energetic song where Raja Kumari's flat rapping is accompanied by Amrita Singh's controlled high-pitched singing, with Arijit sounding like A.R. Rahman both in vocals and rhythmic build-up. The song's explosive climax has been treated brilliantly. There's an alternate version named 'Pagal'.

'Lamha', in three versions by Antara Mitra, Sumana Banerjee and an Antara-Arijit duet, is a beautiful, melodic piece, with the hope-filled line "Aane de nayi subah ko". Hip-hop star Raftaar chips in on the uptempo title track, the only song in a singular version, along with Amrita Singh and Arijit. The song has a nice electronic touch and club feel.

The instrumental tracks make good use of strings, synths and flute. They have fancy English titles like 'Designs Are Movement Of Life', 'Desire Makes Reality' and 'A Catalyst Thought', and seem apt in the film's situation.

As a music directorial debut, Arijit does a commendable job. Appropriately, this has been released by his own label Oriyon Music. His sense of arrangement is fantastic, and his experimentation with different female voices works here. Interestingly, he limits his role as a singer here. However, though his treatment of different versions of the same song is an interesting concept, one hopes he doesn't make it a habit. One or two 'Reprise' and 'Revisted' versions are fine, but beyond that, it becomes 'Redundant'.