Ankahee Music Review

  "Ankahee" – Something that is unsaid! But Vikram Bhatt chooses to do otherwise and opts to tell a story that is close to his heart. With a strong buzz about the germ of the film's idea being derived from Vikram's own relationship in the past with Sushmita Sen, 'Ankahee' is a PNC production. When a film comes from the house of Pritish Nandy, it is rest assured that the film would boast of good production values and a rich look. The same holds true for this Aftab Shivdasani, Esha Deol, Amisha Patel starrer that has music by Pritam and lyrics by Sameer, Amitabh Verma and Subrat Sinha. Pritam has recently scored some points for his music in 'Gangster' [though there are some "inspirations" from across the border] and it would be interesting to see how does his score in 'Ankahee' fare!

When you want to hear the song again from the beginning when you are just half way through, it is sure that there is something about its lyrics that have managed to do the trick as you want to catch the nuances of every word. The same holds good for 'Ek Pal Ke Liye' that is a sensitively written song and one of the best tracks to have arrived this year. Melodious in nature and boasting of some honest rendition by KK, 'Ek Pal Ke Liye' is about 'being' with your loved one and spending as much time as possible in that "single moment".

Shreya Ghoshal too gets a piece of the cake as she arrives to another version of 'Ek Pal' with her solo. Nevertheless, one would still prefer a far more spirited version by KK that came earlier on. Things only continue to get further more entertaining as Sonu Nigam too gets an opportunity to sing his solo version and the results are excellent, just as it is expected from a singer like him. An excellently worded song by Amitabh Verma, 'Ek Pal' is a beautiful 'candle-light' song to which you want to sway with your partner in dim lights.

When there are only guitars in the name of musical instruments, you know that it is going to be yet another melodious outing. This time around it is Kunal Ganjawala to find his place in the album with 'Tumse Yu Milenge' and he continues to do the good work done by his seniors in the album so far. Yet another well worded song, this time by Subrat Sinha, it is about a man who is happy to be back with the person with whom he was close once upon a time. Babul Supriyo is the singer who appears towards the fag end of the album and croons Sameer written 'Lamha', a different version of 'Tumse Yu Milenge' where the tune remains same but the lyrics change completely. The mood of the song stays in the same vein as created by 'Ek Pal Ke Liye', both in terms of music and lyrics, hence making you enjoy every moment in the album so far.

At this point of time, one starts wondering why the album is not being promoted as aggressively as it truly deserves. In the times of on-your-face publicity of the likes of 'Tom Dick and Harry', 'Gangster' and 'Shaadi Se Pehle', 'Ankahee' faces the risk of getting lost if its promotion continues at the same pace!

After KK, Sonu Nigam, Babul Supriyo and Kunal Ganjawala, it's the time for Shaan to croon a number in 'Ankahee', hence making the album a complete packaged affair! He sings the title song 'Ankahee', which has some really meaningful lyrics by Sameer who writes something tangentially different from his usual 'masala' songs. 'Ankahee' is a situational track that again has its base set in melody and has a distinct RD Burman feel to it. There is love, pain, sadness and some questions, all blend into one in 'Ankahee' that is also sung by Kunal Ganjawala in its second version. It is much more haunting and slower in pace with minimal musical instruments in the background. A track that deserves to be given a closer hearing, it involves you and should be appearing as a part of the film's background score.

'Aa Paas Aa' comes at the very end and is a solo, just like all the other songs in the album. It is about a woman asking her lover to be with her. In continuation to the mood of the entire album, this one too has a haunting feel to it with melody as a base, though in comparison with songs like 'Ek Pal' and 'Tumse Yu Milenge', it's a little behind. It should work well as a part of the narrative though!

There are number of things that work for 'Ankahee' but what stands out in the end are not just Pritam's tunes or rendition by the singers but most importantly the lyrics by Sameer, Amitabh Verma and Subrat Sinha that make you hear the songs multiple number of times. 'Ankahee' is one of the rare albums where each of the songs seem to be telling a story than just being there as a prop. There is that distinct quality about the words in each of the songs that one almost starts believing that Vikram Bhatt truly has a sensitive story close to its heart that he is about to unveil on screen!