When an album like Dharm hits the stands, it obviously comes for a niche audience that has sensibilities different from that of those who look forward to commercial Hindi film music. This is the reason why one puts a different hat altogether while playing on this album that has as many as 20 tracks by composer Debajyoti Mishra and lyricist Mritunjoy K Singh. While half the tracks are instrumentals, majority of remaining tracks have Sonu Nigam coming behind the mike. Even though there are 20 tracks in the album, overall duration of Dharm is barely 45 minutes.
Opening track ''Bhaee Bhor'' is a morning track crooned by Sonu Nigam that comes with extremely soothing music and arrangements. Even though the track is heavy when it comes to lyrics, the way it is sung and smoothly paced, it has a relaxing effect on the listener. Next comes ''Twilight'' which is just the opposite of the opening track and is a one minute instrumental based on sunset.
Write your own music review of Dharm
It is back to ''Dawn'' when a line from ''Bhaee Bhor'' is repeated again by Sonu Nigam while ''Jaago'' only takes the mood of the atmosphere forward. One wonders though whether it was actually required to have as many as three break-ups of the same track!?
Sonu Nigam continues to croon with yet another one minute piece which goes by the title ''Nadiya Ke Sagar'' that effortlessly integrates with an instrumental ''Duvidha'' that follows next. One can almost sense a scene been narrated with different musical pieces joined with each other.
The chant of ''Har Har Mahadev'' appears for around 25 seconds before a female voice is heard for the first time in the album with Shreya Ghoshal crooning ''Piya Bole''. No, it is nothing like ''Piya Bole'' from ''Parineeta'', but is instead a semi-classical track that just like the album so far is easy on ears and maintains the smooth-n-subtle mood of Dharm. A difficult track to sing with unconventional lyrics as far as a Hindi film is concerned; it has an extremely balanced singing by Shreya which proves her versatility once again.
Relatively new entrant to the music scene, Aanchal, croons a 100 second piece ''Namaami Shamishaan'' which like most of the tracks earlier is immediately followed by an alaap by Sonu Nigam, ''Kartikey Theme'', that only takes forward from where ''Namaami Shamishaan'' left. Later Sayed Ambrish joins Aanchal for ''Uphaar'' which is an out and out classical track that comes with a relaxing effect once again.
After a short break, Sonu Nigam returns to the scene with a 3 minute ''aalaap'' that goes by the name of ''Silence''. True to it''s title, the track moves at a very slow pace and has only Sonu Nigam dominating the scene with zero instruments in the background. Sonu shows his prowess once again as an artist who has a strong hold on classical stream of music and can demonstrate that side of his when required. Chorus comes into picture with two successive tracks ''Araj'' and ''Requem'' that are mainly for the purpose of adding on to the background score of the film.
Sonu croons ''Naina Tumhi Ko Dekhe'' for just about 100 seconds before he moves on to do his own version of ''Piya Bole'' that was earlier sung by Shreya Ghoshal. Title track Dharm comes in instrumental format ''In Search Of Dream'' that has an ''aalaap'' by Sonu Nigam and later as a song by Sonu Nigam himself that is titled ''Dharm''.
One factor that is common about most of the tracks is that due to their easy-on-ears appeal, they act as good means to put a listener to good sleep! As mentioned at the beginning, Dharm mainly comes for a niche audience and is for that segment that is completely different from the kind that appreciates commercial Hindi film music.
Courtesy: IndiaFM.com