Te3n is an upcoming thriller starring Vidya Balan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Amitabh Bachchan. After Jugni, Clinton gets another album as a solo composer and the songs are penned by Amitabh Bhattacharya. Let’s find out if the music is as thrilling as the premise of the film.
Haq Hai
Haq Hai by Clinton Cerejo is a call to never give up on what is yours, even if the universe tells you otherwise. The song has a constant undercurrent of self belief and lyrics compliment the mood so well that you want to congratulate Clinton for not giving in to the temptation of giving a ‘punch the air with confidence’ tonality to the song. You might not play this song in the gym but you would want to listen to it when you are out on one of your long walks.
Rootha
Rootha is a fabulous song because structure wise, I haven’t heard such a layered film song in a while. It is always reassuring to find a composer who can ‘control’ Benny’s enthusiasm and channel it into a solid effort. To compliment Benny, we have Divya Kumar who is at ease in spite of those long taans and Bianca Gomes (who to my mind, is one of the most under-utilised singers we have today), adds the goosebumps to the song by spotlessly singing lines from a folk song which echo in your mind long after the song ends.
Kyun Re
Kyun Re by Clinton Cerejo is a beautifully composed and solidly worded soft ballad, the kinds that you have your favourite ‘guitar friend’ in the group repeatedly sing for you. I absolutely loved the way a word like ‘choorey’ has made it to a mainstream song. The arrangement is minimal that accentuates the singing and achieves the right effect on the listener. There is another version of this song sung by highly emotive Amitabh Bachchan. Tune and lyrics wise, this version is identical to Clinton’s, but where Clinton focuses on perfect singing presentation, Bachchan’s singing sounds more like a private speech that one indulges in to regulate the pain and fails miserably at it. The pain of losing a loved one, that is. How else can you explain the quiver in his voice at ‘rasta dekhungaa…’? As a composer, the manner in which Clinton makes the helplessness and resignation affect you easily makes this, one of the best songs of this year. It is impossible to pick a favourite between these versions and thank god for that!
Grahan
Vishal Dadlani’s energy and passion are exquisitely matched by a super tune set that has some good guitar play. The song sounds like a tune on which a wounded soul dances, till it passes out. The song is meant to be heavy but in spite of that, it doesn’t weigh you down, perhaps because of the excellent arrangement and programming at play here. Will I listen to this on repeat? No. Is it a good song? Absolutely!
Clinton has achieved a lot in a project that is produced by Sujoy Ghosh who gave us a cracker of a soundtrack in Kahaani and then forgot to include the songs in the film. Don’t wait till the release of the film to discover the songs, listen to them immediately instead. They are well worth your time and money!
4 Quints
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