Highway (soundtrack)

Highway is the soundtrack album, composed by A. R. Rahman, to the 2014 Hindi film of the same name, directed by Imtiaz Ali that stars Randeep Hooda and Alia Bhatt in the lead roles. The film is produced by Sajid Nadiadwala and Imtiaz Ali is the co-producer. The album features nine tracks, and was digitally released on 24 January 2014 (2014-01-24) on T-Series.

Development

Initially, the film was planned with only background score and no songs.^[1] The track titled "Patakha Guddi" lyrically describes freedom and holds abstracts of purity and wildness."Maahi Ve" is of ballad genre picturised on Veera (character played by Alia Bhatt) and Mahabir(character played by Randeep Hooda) as they go through the journey together. According to Rahman, for some songs, he has used a region’s soundscape while for others, he has utilised the character’s internal journey as a map. "Maahi Ve" being one such song, he has used sounds from Punjab, another that could connect with Haryana to transform it into futuristic soundscape.^[2] A single stanza^[3] of the track "Sooha Saha" is sung by Alia Bhatt, marking her debut as a singer.^[3] In an interview with The Indian Express, Rahman quotes, "I am very fascinated with the concept of actors in Hollywood lip syncing to tracks sung by them. I think it adds a nice and real feel to the song. In Highway, we wanted a natural voice for a lullaby and Imtiaz suggested that we should try Alia. I was not aware that she could sing, but Imtiaz asserted that we should give her a chance. I called Alia for a recording session and realised that her voice has a fine, natural texture which went well with the song."^[4] In the film as the journey moves from the plains of Punjab to the hills of Himachal, Veera sings this lullaby that reminds Mahabir of his childhood. Alia was made to sing to add more poignancy to the scene.^[3] The track "Wanna mash up" is a groovy western dance number composed entirely in English with rap and reggae to which Alia’s character Veera grooves to, in the film. As per the situation in the movie, any English song would have fit in to the situation, however Rahman opined to compose an original piece.^[5] Further, on singing the male version of "Patakha Guddi" Rahman notes, "Singing in Punjabi wasn’t difficult as I'd composed the tune, and improvised a lot. All I had to do was work on the pronunciations." It is the first time when he had recorded a full-fledged Punjabi track. The track drifts from Sufi tones to a hard rock number in its length.^[5]On development of the same, lyricist Irshad Kamil stated, "Imtiaz strongly felt that the song must be recorded in Rahman sir’s voice to make it more gratifying in its high notes. I couldn’t agree more. The only hitch was his Punjabi diction, but we soon came up with a solution. I read out the entire song in Punjabi and sent the voice memo to Rahman sir. Patakha guddi was a long piece. We spent quite a few days working on it. The result is for all of us to see."^[6]The opening refrain of "Tu Kuja" is from the famous Persian phrase but later the song is pure Hindi track inspired by the Amir Khusro song 'Kirpa Karo Maharaj' in praise of Moinuddin Chishti.^[5]^[7] The track "Heera" involves traditional couplets by Sant Kabir.^[5] "Kahaan Hoon Main" is a track that lyrically describes one's self-discovery.^[5]

A musical promotional event took place on January 18, 2014 in Mumbai.^[8] The event also had an interview wherein Rahman described as the track Implosive Silence as a "a state of mind-soothing yet enigmatic". It is a musical piece trying to capture the sounds in character Veera's mind as she travels along the highway.^[5]

Track listing

The official track listing was released on A. R. Rahman's official website the same day of the soundtrack's digital release.^[9]^[10]

All lyrics written by Irshad Kamil, except where noted.

No.	Title	Artist(s)	Length
1.	"Patakha Guddi (Female Version)"	Nooran Sisters	4:45
2.	"Maahi Ve"	A. R. Rahman	4:00
3.	"Kahaan Hoon Main"	Jonita Gandhi	5:27
4.	"Wanna Mash Up?" (Lyrics : Lady Kash and Krissy)	Lady Kash and Krissy, Suvi Suresh	3:40
5.	"Sooha Saha"	Zeb, Alia Bhatt	4:59
6.	"Patakha Guddi (Male Version)"	A. R. Rahman	5:57
7.	"Implosive Silence"	Jonita Gandhi	5:41
8.	"Tu Kuja"	Sunidhi Chauhan	4:28
9.	"Heera"	Shweta Pandit	4:32
Total length:			47:36

Marketing

The track titled "Patakha Guddi", sung by the duo Nooran sisters (Jyoti & Sultana Nooran) was released as a single on January 7, 2014. The track "Maahi Ve" sung by A. R. Rahman was the next single that released on January 16, 2014. Both these singles framed the score of the theatrical trailer^[11] and clenched second position on iTunes India single charts on their respective release dates. The making of the song "Sooha Saha" was released on January 18, 2014 that features clips of Bhatt's recording sessions with Rahman.^[12] The male version of "Patakha Guddi" was released on January 24, 2014 as a single. Imtiaz Ali has directed a video with A. R. Rahman and Alia Bhatt for the male version of the song.^[13]

Reception

At Koimoi, Manohar Basu wrote, "For all those who had thought Rahman was losing his midas touch, well he is back with a bang! The songs in this album are mixed – some you’ll take an instant liking for and the rest just grow on you. But each of its numbers is so intoxicating that I promise you will have one hell of a hard time to get these songs off loop." He rated the album 4 on 5 and called it 'exemplary'.^[14] Critic Rajiv Vijayakar of Bollywood Hungama stated, "This is a decent A.R. Rahman score after a long gap, in the sense that it will appeal even to those who are not hardcore fans of the composer and his musical grammar (and composition!)." Rating the soundtrack 3 out of 5, he added, "However, for sheer mass connectivity, we still miss the excellence of Ali's Jab We Met and Love Aaj Kal. Those were soundtracks that made the director's films get initial as well as repeat value!" The Critical review board at Behindwoods reviews, "A timeless soundtrack crafted for the road !", giving the album a score of 3.75 out of 5.^[15]Music Aloud rated the album 9 out of 10 and writes,"Highway. The A R Rahman-Imtiaz Ali-Irshad Kamil team delivers yet another musical treat! Totally worth the wait".^[16]CanIndia News summarized the album stating, "With offbeat lyrics, brilliant music, and a powerful mix of tracks, this album is ready to take over the charts for a very, very long time. It’s as if A.R. Rahman has transmitted all his magic into one album. The album gives you precisely what is expected out of A.R. Rahman’s music, if not more. Absolutely mind-blowing and soulful."^[17]Joginder Tuteja for Rediff wrote, "Of all Imtiaz Ali films to date, the music of Highway is the most experimental." Assigning the album a score of 3 out of 5, he added, "In fact, it is obvious that Imtiaz and Rahman were concentrating more on a theme-based soundtrack that seeps into the narrative, rather than the kind that turns out to be a chartbuster and popular in itself."^[18]Indo-Asian News Service gave the album 4 on 5 stars and wrote, "All in all, the songs of 'Highway' will take music lovers to a different level - it's very powerful and magical."Critic Pawan Jha for BBC World Service stated, "Another winner from A. R. Rahman and Irshad Kamil" and gave it 3.5 on 5.^[19]

Personnel

Credits adapted from A. R. Rahman's official website.^[20]

Backing vocals on the track "Maahi Ve"— Maria Roe Vincent, Rhea Raphael, Neethi, Dorairaju

Indian Rhythm & Percussion: Vedachalam, Vikraman, Venkatesh, Kumar, T.Raja
Flute: Naveen Kumar, Naveen Iyer
Electric guitar: Prasanna
Acoustic Guitar: Keba Jeremiah
Ukulele and Guitar: Haniya

Production

Producer: A. R. Rahman
Sound Design: Resul Pookutty
Mastering: Donal Whelan at Mastering World
Mixing, additional music production on the song "Wanna Mash Up?" :Gil Levy
Mastering of the tracks "Wanna Mash Up?" and "Implosive Silences" : Gil Levy
Engineers:
Vocal supervision: Srinivas, Nakash Aziz, Srinidhi Venkatesh
Music supervisor: Srinidhi Venkatesh
String engineer: V.J. Srinivasamurthy
Mixing: R. Nitish Kumar, T. R. Krishna Chetan
Additional Mixing: K.J. Singh, T.R. Krishna Chetan, Aditya Modi
Programming: Ishaan Chhabra, Hentry Kuruvilla, Santosh Dhayanidhi, T. R. Krishna Chetan
Music co-ordinator: Noell James, Vijay Mohan Iyer
Musicians' fixer: R. Samidurai

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.