Music Review of Bin Roye

By Sultaan Arshad

One had thought that gone are the days when a film’s entire musical score could catch the fancy of music lovers. One could cite here the examples of ‘Ashiqui’ and ‘Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak’ in India and ‘Yeh Dil Aap Ka Huwa’, ‘Choorriyaan’ and ‘Majaajan’ in Pakistan in the not too distant past. But of late it had been regarded as more than sufficient for a film to become memorable if it boasted just one or two popular songs – mostly item numbers.

Hence, it is pretty much a rarity these days for a film, whether Pakistani or Indian – ‘Ashiqui-2’ being an exception – to showcase a musical score that is not just appreciable but is almost certainly bound to attain popularity in its entirety. The music happens to be from HUM Films’ and Momina Duraid’s maiden feature film ‘Bin Roye’ scheduled for release worldwide on Eid-ul-Fitr.

The music album of the film features six songs – one of them, “Chann Charrheya”, having two versions – composed by four Pakistani composers and sung by nine singers including three from India.

The song that immediately captures one’s attention is “Tere Bin Jeena”, a love ditty composed in sufiana/qawwali genre. Though the song begins with Saleema Jawwad’s rendition of Bulle Shah’s poetry, it is then carried forward by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan singing senior poet Sabir Zafar’s lyrics, embellished by a melodious tune composed by one of present days’ finest maestros Sahir Ali Bagga.

“Balle Balle” based on the popular Punjabi folk wedding song with similar opening words, happens to be the only fast-paced number of the album. Composer Shiraz Uppal has added his own flavour to it by re-doing the ‘antaras’. Boasting of an infectious rhythm, the song penned by Shakeel Sohail is vivaciously rendered by Indian singer Harshdeep Kaur, known for her Sufi songs. It may be recalled that she had competed from the ‘Sufi Ki Sultan’ platforms on NDTV in 2008 with Rahat Fateh Ali Khan as her mentor.

The title song “Bin Roye”, though seeped in eastern melody is based on western rhythm pattern with apt usage of piano and guitar for the interlude music. Its pathos-laden lyrics contributed by Shakeel Sohail have been very well composed and sung by Shiraz Uppal. Incidentally, Uppal has to his credit two songs that he has recorded, one each for ‘Nayak’ and ‘Ranjhana’, under the musical baton of none other than A.R. Rahman.

Arguably the best song of the album, “Chann Charrheya” is superbly sung by one of today’s most accomplished Indian playback singers Rekha Bhardwaj of ‘Omkara’, ‘Ishqia’ and ‘Dedh Ishqia’ fame. The recipient of one National and two Filmfare awards, Bhardwaj has done full justice to both the melodious composition of Shani Arshad, and the lyrics penned by Sabir Zafar.

In the second version of “Chann Charrheya” Rekha Bhardwaj has company as Momin Durrani joins her as co-singer, doing a commendable job. Incidentally, in both the versions composer Shani makes his presence felt by simply repeating ‘Maahi Maahi’ in the background.

“Maula Maula” happens to be the true representative of Sufi style of music in this album. Here the one and only Abida Parveen is on familiar grounds while rendering a sufiana composition in her inimitable style. She is well complemented by co-singer Zeb Bangash, though the latter appears at the tail end of the song. Composed by Shani Arshad and penned by Sabir Zafar the song escapes sounding familiar thanks to its rhythmic pattern.

The touching raag-based melody and soulful balad “O Yaara” is composed by the very talented Waqar Ali with thought-provoking lyrics provided by Sabir Zafar and heart wrenching rendition by popular Indian composer-singer Ankit Tiwari. For the uninitiated, Tiwari happens to be the winner of two Filmfare trophies, one each for “Sunn Raha Hai Na Tu” (Aashqui-2) as best music director and “Galiyan” (Ek-Villan) as best male playback singer, besides having sung the very popular “Tu Hai Ke Nahin” (Roy).