By Satyajit, Glamsham Editorial
AALAAP...a title that metaphors the intricacies of refined classical singing, makes a splashing blow in the marquee as another hot-headed youth-centric flick! Fuelled with the burning subject of naxalism, the flick is theme-centrically based on a rock-band with a brigade of potential new star-cast in its credits. Predictably speaking, music has to be iconic as well as youthful and it brings a renowned Indi-Pop rock band Agnee to the fore in B-town. Mohan Kannan (lead vocalist of Agnee), the impressive voice behind "Yaariyan" (COCKTAIL) has been a prominent feature in last few years but AALAAP gives him a bigger opportunity to showcase his multifarious musical skills. Will this be a perfect paradigm for him and his band to make their way potentially in Bollywood's musical fraternity? Let's find out... "Ek Nayi Roshni", a song about enlightenment and encouragement of finding new horizons is a perfect beginning of this uber-cool looking album. It starts off with an 80's rock band stylized drumming impacts that later gets energized with a thriving set of distorted electric guitar strumming and sonorous tones of the lead vocalist. The racy guitar jamming takes the tempo to the highest level, exemplifying the youthful aggression and restlessness that gets epitomized with equally resounding vocals. Mohan Kannan's entrancing vociferous variations is the other major spotlight that gives it a truly rollicking rock-band feel that stays till the last beat. This soundtrack epitomizes Agnee dexterity in delivering out an impressive concert-rock number that has potency of striking chords with campus capers. Extremely popular in college rock-shows and live-shows, "Ek Nayi Roshni" is already a rage and it will be really interesting to view it coming live on big screen. Impressive!!! Agnee is also acknowledged for being prominent Folk-Rock performers and the next soundtrack "Dil Ye Aawaz De", a song about aspirations and dreams, justifies this motivational feel to large extent and is the second impressive entrant that entertains. Crooned to perfection, this time Mohan is joined amiably by the other band members and together they amalgam as bunch of enthused group singing in tandem. Like Shankar Mahadevan's popular Indi-Pop song ("Tere Khayalon Se" (Album- Breathless)), this poignantly pitched track starts off with childish voice (Meera Shenoy), epitomizing out the innocence engulfed in aspired tones, later followed by Mohan and other band members (Varun Venkeat, Koco, Shruti Jakati and Parasher Joshi), singing their heart out in most zestful way. The composition has a theme-centric tribal fusion feel that later gets pumped with extra belligerent hard-metal base arrangements. Panchi Jalonvi's meaningfully progressive lyrics are thought-provoking and make a deep impact with the modulating phases of the track. After a tremendous start with "Ek Nayi Roshni", Agnee maintains their top form with "Dil Ye Aawaz De", a song that definitely will be a pivotal narrative factor in this socio-relevant action film. Go for it!!! After delivering out heavy dosages of archetypical Indi-pop rock musical thump, Agnee contorts to "filmi" mode by pitching out a situational funky track that exhibits the psyche of students towards teachers and educational system in "Pa Para Pa". It has the mindset of "Aal Izz Well" (3 IDIOTS) with the flair of pop-rock, a genre that is well conceptualized in Hollywood teen flick with cinematic grace. Nikhil D'Souza's boyish vocals rule the show while Bonnie Chakraborty and Dhruv Shrikant boisterous chorals adds the desired glam to the funk. Despite having a typical Bollywood-ish fetish, it has rock-band enthralling feel in peppy signature rocking tuneful settings that makes this a likable listening feast, lyrics are awry at places but still adds to the cheerful feel. Meaningful and soulful in sentiments, the folk-rock fusion makes the most memorable dent in album's most convincing soundtrack "Soniye". Like impressive sounding "Ek Nayi Roshni" and "Dil Ye Aawaz De", Agnee pitches one of their most liked concert-rock track again that has heart and mind at right places. Mohan's solo performance is notably vibrant and so is Shelle's thought-provoking set of wordings that has folksy patriotism laden in it. As compared to previous tracks, its tonality is relatively somber but still it maintains the fervor of belligerently pitched hard-rock binge that works potentially. For its resounding theme-centric impacts, "Soniye" can be presumed to be evocative background score that should be adding to the melodramatic shades. Poignant!!! AALAAP takes an enchanting candy-floss swirl with "Shuruwat Pyar Ki", a sweetly toned romantic mushy number that pleases with classic western jazz singing and comes in a congenial soft-rock ballad format. It has been year of female singing prodigies (Shweta Pandit, Shalmali Kholgade, Anwesha Sarkar) so far and the next name to impress is Yamini Lavanian. As far as composition is concerned, it comes in contemporary Hollywood romantic flick mushy track where there are generously pitched arrangements comforting out the feel of soothing voices but it's the vocals that make the maximum impact. Yamini's tenderly rendered voice enchants in varying pitches and gets a soothing support from equally potential Nikhil D'Souza. For all teenyboppers' who loves the mushy romantic seasons, this track should be one for you to impress your lady love. Agnee takes a break from their comfort zones of contemporary hard-rock composing and delivers a reasonable good love track that should be adding the charm to the glam-quotient of the flick. Mushy!!! Garishly choreographed item-song with spicy lyrics, a new successful musical formula to lure masses makes its shoddy presence in mediocre sounding "Chadti Jaawani". Agnee takes a complete U-turn from their style of music in composing by trying out with a typical UP "nautanki" track with average sounding lyrics. Kanika Joshi along with Bonnie Chakraborty try to lift this track with their racy vociferous attires but this slip-shod composition disappoints completely. AALAAP delivers "A Different Beat" all together in B-town where Agnee, one of the upcoming Indi-Pop rock-band impresses with their style of work and performances. For all those listeners who have been relishing the aggression of hard-rock metal base music and the chill of soft-rock ballads, this album is surely be the one to impress them. Like many of recently released successful Bollywood albums, it has strong creative quotient and has a couple of impressive soundtracks under its belt. The highlights of the album are vibrant sounding "Ek Nayi Roshni", inspirational "Dil Ye Aawaz De" and touching "Soniye" while "Shuruwat Pyar Ki" delivers freshness of teen-love. Due to the album's low-profile, bleak face-value and zilch promotions, it's difficult to expect anything phenomenon or chartbusting from the tracks but still it provides sufficient entertainment for its target rock-music lovers. After hearing out half-dozens Paki rock-bands, it's really soothing to hear the arrival of a talented Indi-Pop band in B-town with their potential numbers, a good musical feeling that should work positively for the success of the film. Rating - 3.5/5