It's nice to welcome back AR Rahman to the scene of Bollywood music where he has ruled for more than a decade. The movie has been straightway sent to the public through the OTT platform and it’s the last time we will see Sushant Singh on screen in a new project. All that sadness aside, this album goes well beyond pacifying us and providing the necessary reasons to be happy and hopeful of a bright outlook towards life itself. The musical abilities of AR Rahman will never be in doubt and for doubters, 2020 has been a clear statement from the Chennai-based Genius. After a resounding success in “99 songs” boasting of 14 tracks this time its 9 tracks in Dil Bechara. But it is never about the quantity, and always about the quality. Let us individually look at what worked amazingly in these tracks.

Dil Bechara
Singer: AR Rahman
Lyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya 

Funky is one word to describe this as the bass guitar casts a spell on you straight away as AR Rahman strikes you with one of the most unique voices in the industry and songs like these, he alone can deliver with style. You can hear the backing vocals of Poorvi Koutish in the background and just in his usual style he goes for digitally recreated vocal tones as his interlude music. Even without watching the video you know the track begs you to get up and hit the dance floor, in slow tempo though. In the first stanza you can start hearing the keys doing some magic. Hriday Gattani accompanies on the backing vocals as well. The fag end of the second stanza where the strings play in the second layer is what reminds us of the great man’s musical wizardry.

Taare Ginn
Singers: Shreya Ghoshal, Mohit Chauhan
Lyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya

Quite clearly this is the best track of the album, and it is so nice to hear Mohit Chauhan’s voice after so long. He combines with the leading diva Shreya Ghoshal for this track and straight away you know you are up for something magical as the strings keep playing just about enough to get your attention. This track scores very high on instrumental arrangements all along and we are about discover why. IN the first interlude AR Rahman goes for a brilliant symphony of live instruments with the keys making the intro, and then over to a string orchestra accompanied by a delightful flute solo. Suddenly the three instruments climax into silence and Mohit Chauhan sings “Rokho Ise”, was this intentional? If yes, its brilliant in design! The end to the stanza is rich in quality with both Shreya’s humming and a violin playing to match her. The scale changes like we have seen in so many of AR Rahman’s prior works and he so smartly makes Shreya sing the opening lines like a loop in the background. The outro is a violin solo that takes away the cake and probably what we will remember the most about the song. Mohit is the heartbeat of the song but Shreya makes her contribution worthwhile too even if just mostly through background vocals.

Khulke Jeene Ka
Singers: Arijit Singh, Shashaa Tirupati
Lyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya

This is another track straight down the alley of AR Rahman, a love duet with some great singing but this reminded me of Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. The flute interlude is playful and catchy and it ends with a mild piano leading into the first stanza. Arijit sings backed by Shashaa’s humming, but the richness of the opening lines of the track and the stanza go missing in the ending part of the stanza. A second interlude (something of a rarity these days) is also flute-based and scores better than first one. What struck me when the song nears its end especially with Shashaa’s humming and the bass guitar, I was reminded of Thumbi vaa from the movie Olangal by Ilaiyaraaja back in 1982.

Main Tumhara  
Singers: Jonita Gandhi, Hriday Gattani
Lyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya 

Hriday Gattani is an up and coming singer, songwriter and impressed one and all a couple of months back with a single Tu Zinda. He already sang the backing vocals in the Dil Bechara title track. He just excels at his vocal delivery, and the song takes us back to those precious compositions of yesteryears of AR Rahman. Somehow barring the first track the other 3 have all been a duet with male and female singing in harmony. It’s a short and sweet track

Mashkari 
Singers: Sunidhi Chauhan, Hriday Gattani
Lyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya 

The track starts off in extremely stylish fashion with Hriday’s humming, and just like from being pop-sounding it seamlessly moved into the genre of Indian folk. Sunidhi Chauhan is an exponent and she needs no time to swoop into play with her energetic vocals. The folk strings play the interlude, and here too the singers share the stage in unison during the stanza. Somehow the tune and structure and arrangements remind me of Tamasha’s Matargasthi track.

Afreeda 
Singers: Sanaa Moussa, Raja Kumari
Lyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya 

Sanaa Moussa is a globally renowned Palestinian singer and she has been roped in to deliver the middle-eastern influences with great efficacy while the Indian-American rapper Raja Kumari who is blowing extremely hot in the independent scene has been employed to perform the rap sections. The song is more of a congregation of global talents and who better than Rahman to inspire and broker such a deal. One cannot avoid the comparisons to Maiyya Maiyya from guru for obvious reasons. There is an abundance of percussion and too many things happening which overwhelm the Arabian element and richness in their music which is generally high. All said and done, hats off to Sanaa for what she can do with her vocals.

Mera Naam Kizie
Singers: Aditya Narayan, Poorvi Koutish
Lyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya 

Aditya Narain is the son of Udit Narain and he has been quite popular in the independent music space singing for other composers as well. The song has something like a jazz feel with the wind instruments and strong influence of the piano. Poorvi Koutish who hit a home-run with Jwalamukhi from 99 songs a few months ago sings this with tease and glamour, and we all know what an Indian idol finalist is capable of. There is an elaborate outro to this song and for really hardcore AR Rahman fans this is straight out of the first interlude of May Madhams “Palakattu Machanukku” track.

Friendzone
Singer: AR Rahman
Lyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya 

This is just a reprise version of Dil Bechara track title and it begins from the first stanza, with chorus elements and sounds like an EDM/party version of the original. Amidst all the exuberance of music and noise, the trumpets stood out!

The Horizone of Saudade

This is an instrumental track , and the beautiful guitar strings play jugalbandhi with the flute and a mild santoor as well. The piano then begins to take over and as it slowly fades in the background, the violin solo becomes the hero and its extremely beautiful and soulful and this is the same version that plays as the outro in Taare Ginn.