Music review: Khajoor Pe Atke

Album: Khajoor Pe AtkeGenre: BollywoodActor-turned writer-director, Harsh Chhaya’s debut venture 'Khajoor Pe Atke' is a slice-of-life comedy that celebrates life and death with a generous dose of tongue-in-cheek humour. The ensemble cast includes Manoj Pahwa, Vinay Pathak, Seema Pahwa, Dolly Ahluwalia, Vandita Shrivastava, Sanah Kapoor among others.This four-song album composed by Bickram Ghosh, reflects his signature style of neo-fusion music. The maestro, who had earlier composed for 'Little Zizou' (2009), 'Sooper Se Ooper' (2013) and 'Jal' (2014), has once more dabbled in multiple genres to create an album, which is an amalgamation of classical, folk-rock and new-age music. Three of the four tracks are written by Harsh — the fun, colloquial and witty lyrics add an edge to the tracks. The deft use of sarangi strains and dholak give the first track 'Aao Na Dekha', a rural touch. But the fun lyrics and cheeky rendition by Timir Biswas and Ujjaini Mukherjee win you over.Harsh has gone all out for his directorial debut — he has not just written, but also sung the next, 'Dhokha'. The slow music with its rhythmic beats seems inspired by West Bengal’s traditional Baul Geeti.Queen of Bhojpuri folk, Kalpana Patowary does complete justice to the next track 'Sumdi Mein Jhol'. She is known for her songs 'Aila Re Aila' ('Khatta Meetha', 2010), 'Gandi Baat' ('R... Rajkumar', 2013) among others. This track also sees some fantastic dholak playing by Sankhadeep Chatterjee.The first part of the track 'Duniya' reminds you of the iconic 'London Thumakda' ('Queen', 2014), but then as the track progresses, it picks up a different beat. Divya Kumar and Ujjaini Mukherjee add character to this groovy, foot-trapping track with their singing.Overall, this album of four original songs surely deserves a hear.