Reviewed by: Mohammad Ali Ikram
ali@indolink.com

Illaiyaraja's son, Karthik Raja, makes his Hindi-movie music debut with J.S.E.L.'s (Jackie Shroff Entertainment Limited) maiden venture Grahan (Eclipse). The immensely talented father never benefited from a mega-hit Hindi film score in his career, though his original South Indian songs have been plagiarized numerous times by Bollywood. Will the same unfair fate befall the offspring? Not necessarily. Grahan is very similar in construction to Illaiyara's southern style, but unique in its own right. The unusual music is the perfect base from which to present a wonderful movie. It will take time to really appreciate Grahan's songs, but give it a couple of listenings and you will be hooked.

"Kehte Hain Jisko Mohabbat Woh Ho Tum" is a sublime, Rahmanesque love duet. Soft, soothing vocals are provided by Abhijeet and Kavita Krishnamurthy while the female chorus and a ghost-voice (sounding like Chitra) lurk beautifully in the background. The woodwinds, percussion and string instruments compliment one another as if they were inseparable triplets.

"Aaj Main Khush Hoon" could easily be mistaken for an Illaiyaraja composition. A passable song, the "Ai-ya-yo" refrains by Asha Bhosle make the song sound straight out of a stereotypical South Indian movie. And Jolly Mukherjee sounds so much like Abhijeet, that I would bet the cassette company has made an error on the audio sleeve.

"Yeh Sochta Hai Kya Zara Palat Idhar" has a frisky Asha trying to command the attention of a distracted Jolly Mukherjee (now sounding like Hariharan) by repetitively self-praising her beauty. A mellow tune where Ms. Bhosle demonstrates that only the truly talented can articulate the voice of a whining girl while singing.

In "Chup Chup" Asha reprises the 'desparate girl in love' routine with an equally dismissive Abhijeet. She wants to talk and fool around, but he wants her to shut up: very cute lyrics. (Why are there no credits for a lyricist on the audio or compact disc sleeves?) The dholak and male 'Sa Ni Dha Pa' interludes made me inquisitive as to what will take place on screen between Manisha Koirala and Jackie Shroff.

"Nacho Jaise" has Kavita Krishnamurthy teaching a children's chorus how to enjoy music and life. The music is classically rooted, and the choir-like children's singing is superlative in comparison to the whining kids we have become over-accustomed to hearing in most songs of late.

The album ends with Dominique and a ghost-female singing "Disco Rap" and frankly the title on the cover is an insult to the song. The tune demonstrates that Karthik Raja understands both current and classic music far better than the song title credits him. Listen to the rap, house, remix, classic Indian and rock melange in this interesting composition. A better title would have been "Hari Om Hari Om".

Grahan is a music album that deserves as much attention (and hopefully praise) as the film for which it was designed. If nothing else, the songs deserve a listening for the gifted and innovative new music director they introduce to listeners. Not everyone will like him, but one cannot simply ignore Karthik Raja.

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