BEHINDWOODS COLUMN

‘First Listen’ is a new feature where Behindwoods score an exclusive listening session of an album ahead of its scheduled release to offer the audiences an insight into what to expect from the soundtrack.

Since 2006, GV Prakash has checked into virtually every nook and corner of the music marketplace of Indian cinema, but the 27 year old’s desire to reinvent himself is admittedly more pronounced now than ever before. In 2012, committed to distinguish himself from the contemporary, he set off with a fresh set of sounds in his bank to work with maverick director Anurag Kashyap in ‘Ugly’. With a license to go crazy, GV Prakash duly obliges and cooks up concoctions of swirling trippy rhythms while dabbling with dubstep on this record.

Loaded with four songs, the album is crisp but sonically heavy, certain to give you a buzz in the end with the finale ‘Money’, a monstrous aural assault carrying violent screams. Anurag Kashyap’s role here appears to begin and end with handpicking the talent and cutting them loose on a creative collision course. Ugly will introduce to us a new lyricist, Gaurav Solanki, and new singers, Bharka Swaroop Saxena and Christopher Stanley, emerging under the AKFPL enterprise.

The album opener, ‘Suraj Hai Kahan’, also marks a first for GV as a singer in Hindi, free of a South Indian dialect. Glum guitars meet an aggressive voice as GV drops and drags a flexible two-step beat.  Despite the adventurous mindset GV still continues, almost by tradition, to pack in accessible yet technically proficient melodies all through. Sung by Shilpa Rao, the hopeful piano ballad ‘Papa’ is one such tune that flourishes on his signature melodies.

There’s hardly any room for gimmickry here because the content is serious. Even the usually colorful Bhojpuri dancebar number ‘Ni Chod De’, sung by Bharka Swaroop Saxena, is dealt with a measured approach musically, but as the title suggests, Solanki’s songwriting doesn’t hold anything back. The bongos and clarinet paint the walls, though the ambience is still of electronica. Public Issue’s Christo Stanley screams and grunts his way into the silver screen on ‘Money’ - a grimy and relentless banger reserved for a crucial moment in the film. The downpour of the track’s intensity can be experienced in the film’s trailer.

Make no mistake, this isn’t an offhand attempt from GV Prakash but much rather a sign of things to come. A sign of unhinged self-expression.

The album and the film’s release date are expected to be announced soon.

Tracklist :
 

1. Suraj Hai Kahan
   Singer: GV Prakash Kumar
   Lyrics : Gaurav Solanki
    

2. Papa
   Singer : Shilpa Rao
   Lyrics : Gaurav Solanki
    

3. Ni Chod De
   Singer: Bharka Swaroop Saxena
   Lyrics : Gaurav Solanki
    

4. Money
   Singer : Christopher Stanley
    

Written by Jigdesh
Follow @jigdesh