Banjo's music strikes the right chord with the masses

The upcoming musical drama, 'Banjo', has piqued the curiosity of movie aficionados as it showcases the journey of banjo players. In fact, this is the first time a Hindi mainstream movie is focussing on the lives of the largely sidelined section of street musicians.
As music is the soul of this Riteish Deshmukh-Nargis Fakhri-starrer, director Ravi Jadhav and composers Vishal-Shekhar wanted to create an album that not only rings true with the film's theme but also appeals to the masses.It seems their efforts have paid off as the soundtrack, which features six songs ' 'Bappa', 'Udan Choo', 'Rada', 'Pee Paake', 'Reham O Karam' and 'Om Ganapataye Namaha Deva' ' has been lapped up by music lovers. While 'Bappa' makes for the ideal track this Ganpati season, 'Udan Choo' is a soothing romantic number crooned by new talent Hriday Gattani. The most popular of the lot, 'Rada', sung by Vishal is the perfect dance club number.
Ravi did extensive research for three years and interacted with 50 banjo groups to understand the traditional folk music of Mumbai. He informs, 'The brief given to Vishal-Shekhar was that the essence has to be street music but it has to appeal to music lovers globally. Most of the songs have been recorded live as it was difficult to record the banjo beats in a studio set-up. They did their research and have come up with an exceptional soundtrack.'
Adds producer Krishika Lulla, 'It is a quintessential Bollywood album and we are happy that the songs have been climbing the charts steadily.'Shekhar Ravjiani says, 'The idea was to recreate Mumbai's local street music but with a contemporary rock feel. Working on this film has been a satisfying experience for us.'
'Banjo', produced by Eros International, releases on September 23.
Read full review of 'Banjo'
Listen to 'Banjo' songs on Gaana.com