OTT music review/ Musafir Café


BY NARENDRA KUSNUR

Musafir Café/ OTT soundtrack 

Music: Garvit-Priyansh, Raghav Kaushik, Neel Adhikari 

Genre: Hindi OTT

Label: Netflix Music 

Rating: *** 1/2

Did Sudha (Vedika Pinto) do the right thing? Should Chander (Vikrant Massey) have gone to the hills? Poor Preeti (Mahima Makwana). The storyline and cast of Ruchir Arun's Netflix series Musafir Café seems to be the hot discussion these days - till something else comes up.

What many people are not talking about is the music. And that's what this blog will focus on. After a while, here's an OTT soundtrack with some meat. What's interesting is that besides the original songs, the producers have released an album of Unplugged versions.

Given the series theme, the songs deal with love or heartbreak. The lyrics, divided between Aniket Shukla and Amrita Saluja, are particularly impressive, matching the moods and situations in the narrative. They are backed by simple compositions, with well-layered harmonies and smooth arrangements, with lots of guitar, flute and keys.

Of the five songs, Garvit-Priyansh compose three. 'Kaafi hai na', sung by Priyansh Srivastava and Jonita Gandhi, has the lines, "Tu mera ho gaya itna hi kaafi hai na, dil mera jud gaya itna hi kaafi hai". It has that loop-worthiness.

'Tera Hua Sahiba', sung by Garvit Soni, Priyansh and Hansika Pareek, has a likeable tune. Garvit's singing is soulful on 'Toota Rahunga', which has the lines, "Hum ko bichadna na tha gawaara, toota rahoonga bin tere main yahaan".

One of the highlights is Raghav Kaushik's composition 'Darmiyaan', sung by him and Rekha Bhardwaj. The lines are, "Kyon tere mere darmiyaan rehta hai jaise ek nishaan, kyon tère mere darmiyaan thehri hai jaise dastaan". 

Finally, there's the jazz-flavoured 'Rozanna', composed by Neel Adhikari and sung by Lisa Mishra. It goes well with the situation in the series but on its own, sounds a bit out-of-place. The Unplugged version uses the voice of Mousumi Datta, and is catchier.

The Unplugged album also uses poetry and dialogues recited by the actors between the songs. That gives the entire album a totally different feel. The only thing that seems  uncomfortable in both albums is that sometimes, the singers try too hard to sound emotional. A natural approach would have been more effective.

Over the past few years, the OTT world has heard some good music in Bandish Bandits, Pagglait, Qala, Jubilee and Mukhbir, to name a few. However, many of them don't get the attention they deserve, or are forgotten once the buzz over the film or series dies down. One hopes the Musafir Café soundtracks - both original and Unplugged - get adequate eardrums, irrespective of whether audiences have given the actual series a green flag or red flag. Maybe cafes should start playing them to musafirs.


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