Gori Re

"Gori Re"
Single by Shankar Ehsaan Loy (composer) Shankar Mahadevan, Richa Sharma (singers)
from the album Vanity Fair
Released	8 August 2004
Format	CD single
Recorded	2004
Genre	Rajasthani folk Ethnic
Label	Decca Records
Writer(s)	Javed Akhtar
Producer(s)	Janette Day
Music sample Gori Re Preview sample of Gori Re

Gori Re (Devanagari:गोरी रे, English: O Fair One!) is a song from 2004 English-American film Vanity Fair by Mira Nair. The track is composed by Indian trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, while the lyrics are penned by Javed Akhtar.

Development

Mira Nair, the director of the film, was in search for good Indian musicians to score a single for the album, and finally roped Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy for the task at the last minute. She showed them a rough footage of the situation she wanted them to compose for, which was the last few sequences of the film. The trio has used tabla and several other Indian musical instruments for the song, without any synth to give it an ethnic feel.^[1] She asked lyricist Javed Akhtar, who is also an old friend of hers, to write the lyrics in a way that it conveys the idea of a woman who has achieved all that she wanted and found her own voice - as it was to be exemplified by Becky when she comes to India. The song is written in the Rajasthani dialect.^[2]

The song was sung by Shankar of the trio, along with Richa Sharma.

Reception

Jerry McCulley of Celtic-Instruments described the song as "a sprighty duet",^[3] while SoundtrackNet said the "aforementioned upbeat vocal number Gori Re" is enjoyable in its own way for one who enjoys Indian musical styles.^[4]

References