Music Review: Rustom

Label: Zee Music

Music: Arko Pravo Mukherjee, Jeet Gannguli, Ankit Tiwari, Raghav Sachar

Quick take: A melodious album despite clashing styles

Filmfare rating: 3/5

Rustom is supposed to be a biopic based on the infamous Nanavati case which happened in 1959. One would expect the OST to bring out the period feel but it’s not the case. They are pleasing to the air by and large so one shouldn’t complain too much. It should be pointed out that such a project, where attention to detail should be the key ingredient, would have benefitted heavily from the services of a single composer at the helm. Four composers mean four different styles and hence a singularity of vision doesn’t come through. Thankfully, all lyrics are by Manoj Muntashir and thankfully help cloak the tunes with clothe cut from a single thought unit.

Arko’s Tere sang yara, sung by Atif Aslam is a great starting point to the album. The warmth, the cadence of a man madly in love is brought out well by Atif. The reprise, sung by the composer himself, is pleasant too. Rustom vahi, by Raghav Sachar feels like the theme song of Shaan composed by RD Burman.  The song has a female version, an instrumental version, a male version and a Marathi version too. It’s Sukriti Kakar’s version which stands out. Jasraj Joshi too does a decent enough job in both the male and the Marathi versions. Tay hai is clockwork Ankit Tiwari in both composition and vocals. Just when you think he’s getting predictable, he surprises you with the sombre Jab tum hote ho, which makes great use of Shreya Ghoshal’s melodious voice and shows you he could do more than just stadium sound numbers.

Jeet Gannguli is in superb form in both his numbers, which are high on melody and come close to recapturing the period setting of the film. Dekha hazaron dafaa has some great word imagery and the layered composition is complimented by some nuanced singing from Arijit Singh and Palak Muchhal. There is a hint of Shankar-Jaikishan in the song, a clever touch by Jeet. Dhal jaun main’s lyrics speak of both longing and release and Jubin Nautiyal and Akansha Sharma has done a great job in capturing the ethos.

It’s rare these days to have an album which maintains a steady quality throughout. The trend these days is to have one or two hook songs or massy numbers but Rustom’s OST thankfully doesn’t take that road. It stands out despite being packed with composers galore.