Assamese Music Composer Anurag Saikia Enthralls Bollywood Again

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Bollywood hits aren’t new anymore for Assam’s music composer Anurag Saikia, but, he did it again. After having composed what was arguably the best song — ‘Prabhu Ji’ — for Akarsh Khurana’s High Jack earlier this year, Saikia is already winning hearts through the three tracks in another Khurana directed movie –Karwaan. While in ‘Chhota Sa Fasana’, Karwaan director’s own pensive lyrics, Saikia produces a perfect theme for the road trip movie, in ‘Heart quake’ (in its original version) he delivers a proper winner beautifully crafted ditty through Papon’s husky voice. The composer gives the lyrics a new and very electronic treatment in the alternate version of the song ‘Aftershocks’ that also features another of the movie’s composers SlowCheeta on rap.

SlowCheeta teams up with Shwetang Shankar (as he did in High Jack) to produce ‘Dhai Kilo Bakwaas’. Lot of wacky elements – including the failed attempt at the Malayalam accented English rapping — in between in the song, but nothing really stays with you at the end of it. Two more of the album’s songs go to the man who always manages to evoke a sense of nostalgia with his voice, melodies and words (though in an increasingly repetitive fashion) — Prateek Kuhad. ‘Kadam’ is everything you associate with Kuhad’s trademark style — gentle guitar work, a soothing voice all putting you into a pleasant lull.

‘Saansein’ on the other hand has a relatively richer arrangement — piano being the mainstay of the arrangement — and is more road trip-y in its disposition. ‘Bhar De Hamaara Glass’ comes from Imaad Shah, with Saba Azad behind the mic — which is surprisingly not under the label of their collective act Madboy/Mink. A bit laid back and immersive in comparison with the duo’s usual songs, the packaging is a similar mix of retro jazziness with contemporary electronic elements — and the end result is immensely engaging.