Music Review:Three Idiots(Shantanu Moitra)

There’s something about Shantanu Moitra’s music that makes it unique,distinctive and refreshing.It is perhaps the tinge of 70s music with which he dabs his music,if not the frequent out and out retro that he springs on us.Also the earthy Bengali flavour that permeates his songs–coupled with a ritualistic obsession towards melody,only melody and nothing else–must have got something to do with all the treacly warmth his songs germinate inside us.Some of this syrupy goodiness seeps into the totally whistle worthy Aal Izz Well(Did Raju Hirani have a part in naming the credits!).It’s a bombastic outburst of delight,cheer and celebration of basic existence,especially the title hook,and with Swanand’s wacky lingo buttressing it,this one’s all the more welcome.The OST slackens,only in pace and not in quality that is,with Behti Hawa Sa Tha Woh.Moitra plucks out a trademark melody more in the lines of Kasto Maza(Parineeta) and weaves a soundscape that is quotidian yet profound-all at the same time.Another beautiful thing about his music is that his songs,almost all of them including this,are eminently hummable and his notes always land with a soft caress rather than a loud,garish thud.The boy band’ish Give Me Some Sunshine central conceit lies in it’s unflinching focus onto what every college lad echoes,particularly the ones scarred by the competitive edu system where one ‘pays’ for not earning that extra grade.And it does all this in the endearing Raju Hirani light hearted way-You laugh but more importantly you also think when Sharman Joshi says that it was his father himself who taught him how to bribe officials.Swanand Kirkire strikes an amazing balance within the lyrics by eschewing any kind of phony preachiness and hence cheesiness,coating the acerbic parts with sugar,and in ensuring that a truly genuine issue gets registered with the fun quotient remaining intact.

Sonu Nigam does a stunning job in Jaane Nahin,another dramatic song also ridden with pathos and melancholy of the situational kind.

The wistful clouds,though,disperse giving way to thunderous rain laden ones—making us fade back to a time when bell bottoms were in and faded jeans weren’t manufactured yet—for some 70s action in Zoobi Doobi(Scooby Dooobi Doo anyone?).Sonu and Shreya are outrageously over the top,in true blue cabaret meets rain serenade fashion.

Moitra’s songs for Three Idiots aren’t earth shaking but they are uniformly good and,importantly,entertaining.This reflects in my picks as well.

My Picks-Zoobi Doobi

My Rating-Three Cheer!!!