Music of Fashion

It’s about time a movie was made about the esoteric goings-on within India’s burgeoning fashion industry, which, given its manic growth and globalisation, is geared to soon compete with Paris and Milan.

In an effort to blend with the glamorous and metropolitan look of this movie, Madhur Bhandarkar’s prudence to task Salim-Suleiman with this album is remarkable. Although the duo is customarily associated with a modern and club-like sound, their recent soundtracks have been much more earthy and traditional (“Aaja Nachle”, “Dor”, “Chak De India”). With “Fashion”, the duo returns with an intense, cosmopolitan album.

Salim Merchant gets behind the mic on “Aashiyana”, and could easily be mistaken for KK. The energetic number kicks off the album effectively.

The “Theme of Fashion” is a thought-provoking instrumental piece, and the usage of santoor and strings as lead instruments, over a trancey background, is well-handled.

Sukhwinder Singh brings in his trademark powerful folk vocals, over the electronica sound, to the catchy “Fashion Ka Jalwa”.

A well-composed and intricate love song, “Kuch Khaas” features Mohit Chauhan and Neha Bhasin (you may remember her from Channel [V]’s girl-band, Viva, for whom Salim-Suleiman coincidentally composed the song, “Jaago Zara”). Question – Is every new Hindi movie mandated to have one ballad featuring Mohit Chauhan, these days?

“Mar Jaava” is a unique lounge track, structurally reminiscent of “Zara Zara”, because of its sound, layout and low-octave female vocals. The USP of this track is the concept itself, coupled with excellent piano work, and Shruti Pathak’s semi-classical blended movements. If you ask this reviewer, “Mar Jaava” is clearly Fashion’s supermodel.

Balance Sheet: Similar to its look, “Fashion” is very “urban chic” in its sound. What’s more noteworthy about this album is the overall atmosphere of the soundtrack, rather than each individual track. Unlike many recent soundtracks, which seem to be historically templated, the music of “Fashion” does come across as “tailor-made” – pun intended.

Kudos to Salim-Suleiman, who have historically managed to create a holistic sound for a movie album, instead of stand-alone and disparate tracks, owed to their wide body of work on background scores. Keeping that same passion alive with “Fashion”, this is an album that’s clearly in season and geared to heat up the ramp, a notch!