Mikey McCleary’s remix of Mohabbat Buri Bimaari is oddly titled version 1. And it has a nice groovy rhythm amidst the boisterous brass paraphernalia. Shalmali Kholgade does well too, her drawling rendition goes very well here. But version 2 by Amit Trivedi squarely beats Mikey’s version on all counts! The rhythm changes to a more waltzy one and the brass section is a tad softer. There is an Indian flavour to what the brass section plays here, especially in the interludes, evoking faint memories of Shankar Jaikishan’s Raga Jazz Style. And what brilliant singing by Neeti Mohan; she just owns the drunken style! Version 3 is actually redundant given that it isn’t any different from Version 2, except for Shefali Alvares on vocals. While she is good, Neeti is the clear winner among the three versions. Lyrics remain same in all three variants; Amitabh Bhattacharya’s colourful portrayal of love as a deadly illness. Shefali also gets the longest track of the album, Aam Hindustani that falls just shy of nine minutes. A song that goes through multiple modes over that duration; starting with a gentle clarinet solo that quickly escalates into a long carnivalesque instrumental prelude which then settles into a laidback rhythm just in time for Shefali to start off. The lady handles the vocals excellently. But for its Hindi lyrics, Shefali’s third song Shut Up could fit right into a Disney soundtrack!
We get back to Neeti Mohan who is the star singer of the soundtrack; the lady features in five more songs! Wiki says she is the voice of Anushka Sharma in the movie, though I am not sure how true that is given that the Fifi video had her lip-syncing to Suman’s voice. And Neeti rules Ka Kha Ga with her singing, while in the background Amit produces another engaging jazz-based combination of the brass and keys and double bass. Dhadaam Dhadaam has an unmistakable La Vie En Rose whiff about it, and the arrangement here is just beautiful, even as Neeti sings her heart out conveying the pain in the lyrics. Naak Pe Gussa also follows on a similar note but with a more foot-tappy rhythm and lighter lyrics. And not as effective. Sylvia came across to me like a possible tribute to OP Nayyar. While the underlying rhythm amidst all the big band sound isn’t explicitly a horse-cart one so famously associated with the composer, it definitely seems to have derived from that template. The other standout elements in the arrangement are the muted trumpet solos, joined at the right spots by the other brass instruments. On top of all this is a well-delivered charming melody. Neeti’s final song Behroopiya is a duet, Mohit Chauhan being the rare male presence in the soundtrack. And this happens to be the only vocal track that doesn’t follow the classic jazz format, in fact Behroopiya sounds very contemporary. Amit shows how to make a sombre melody without following the Bhatt style. Eventhough there’s no jazz, the arrangement does prominently feature a trumpet.
The other male voice in the soundtrack comes from Papon, in Darbaan. Lovely use of trumpet here too, even as Papon does a sedate rendition of the pensive melody. Final vocal track of Bombay Velvet comes from Mikey McCleary, an adaptation of OP Nayyar’s 1956 song Jaata Kahaan Hai Deewane, called Fifi here. The arrangement is nice, albeit typically Mikey. In a soundtrack marked by its superior vocal effort so far though, where this song really gets let down is in Suman Sridhar’s rendition. Her offbeat style has worked for many covers in the past, but not here. Of the three instrumental tracks, only one really follows the jazz track, the drum-laden Tommy Gun. The interesting part of the Bombay Velvet Theme starts about 1.5 minutes into the track. Bombay Velvet. Amit Trivedi’s second soundtrack for Anurag Kashyap after his National award-winning effort six years back, Dev.D. And the man delivers yet another massive, esoteric soundtrack, this time (mostly) within the confines of jazz music. And yet again it is a keeper! (Vipin Nair blogs at www.musicaloud.com)