Rahman’s creation, a romantic soundtrack for Ekk Deewana Tha, is a great start to 2012.

The film and the track are a remake of a Tamil film Vinnathandi Varuvaya. The album commences with an original song not taken from the Tamil soundtrack. It’s a pleasant orchestra based ode on love called “Kya Hai Mohabbat” . The music is very slow and soft creating the ambience of bliss and serenity. Rahman’s vocals is wonderful accentuated by a lovely chorus in the background. Javed Akhtar’ s lyrics are simple sweet.  

“Dost Hai (Girl I Love You)” tries to experiment with the original Tamil song.  There is a romantic vibe provided by the melodic strings of a viola and the vocals of Naresh Iyer. Remixed onto this core is a modern rap song with beats and mixing composed by new age musicians Sachin Jigar and rap vocals by Jaspreet Jasz.  A decent offering though not outstanding.

“Aromale (My Beloved)” is quintessentially Rahman.  Like all his classic compositions, the music consists of multiple layers of instrumentation but the guitar riffs are undoubtedly the highlight. In fact the guitars are strummed so precisely and expertly here you can feel the tension of each TWANG explode in your ears! Then there’s the wonderful integration of multiple languages (in this case Hindi lines by Javed Akhtar and Malayalam lines by Kaithapram Damodaram Nambuthri) through the use of Alphonse Joseph . His stunning vocals deliver powerful mood swings throughout the song. He is brilliant but his performance is made possible by Rahman’s ingenuity for what is arguably one of the best offerings of this track.

In “Broken Promises” Rahman just unplugs the music here and allows Shreya Ghoshal  present her mesmerising alaaps. Wonderful.

“Hosanna”, a song that was the biggest hit from the original Tamil soundtrack and listening to it here in the remake, you can understand why. The infectious music just lifts you off your feet and makes you want to fall in love.   A serene orchestra topped with a mesh of peppy beats and guitar strumming together with English verses by Blaaze, giving it a modern setting. Leon D’Souza’s youthful vocals are perfect whilst Suzanne D’mello provides background chants and alaaps. Javed Akhtar’s lyrics do the trick  

“Phoolon Jaisi” is a background song depicting the feelings of our lover who is totally besotted by his newfound love. Clinton Cerejo and Kalyani Menon (Malayalam lyrics) sing very well.

“Sharminda Hoon” has a beautiful love duet between Madhushree and A.R.Rahman. With a strong melodic core provided by the piano, A.R. uses a number of traditional instruments to give sincerity to the song including the flute.   Madhushree’s performance is the highlight of the song and Rahman acts as supporting singer.  

“Sunlo Zara” is a nice and lively number.  Fantastic vocals by Rashid Ali and Shreya Ghoshal with a great foot tapping rhythm this is bound to be a hiy.

“Zohra-Jabeen” belongs to the group of slow love songs from the album that will act as a background song in the film.  The music is very  pleasant with the use of multiple string instruments  

The rest of the tracks are instrumentals but as with all Rahman instrumentals they are not just any instrumentals. They are composed with a lot of finesse and attention to detail .The romantic theme just exudes from “Moments in Kerala” and “Jessie’s Land” where the piano and violin are used to ethereal effect. Background alaaps are provided by Prabhakar and Mehga. “Jessie’s Driving Me Crazy” is a short but rocking tune with vocals by Sanjeev Thomas and Timmy.

Overall a lovely beginning for 2012 from Rahman.

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