It’s been a while since I posted a music review. The last one was probably Dev D. at the beginning of this year (Gulaal was covered in the movie review). The reason is I just haven’t heard a good complete album for a while. I’ll give you Kaminey, but that was it. Blue might get a skip too.
I was quite happy with Coke Studio for this year, until I heard about Wake Up Sid.
I didn’t expect much from Wake Up Sid, since the music was scored by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. After a listen, I didn’t have anything new to say, as they didn’t have anything new to offer. No doubt they are a superbly talented trio, but their choice of movies is disappointing. All their albums end up sounding similar to each other inspite of having variety within the albums. I still maintain that their greatest album is Lakshya, much to the disagreement of my friends.
Back to Wake Up Sid, if you’ve heard any SEL album, you’ve heard Wake Up Sid. The only song I liked at first glance was the title track. I almost skipped through the remaining tracks, I didn’t think there was any surprise.
Until I read in a movie review that one particular song, Iktara, was by Amit Trivedi — the same guy who gave us Aamir and Dev D; the only other music director besides A.R. Rahman whose albums I don’t ignore. I had to go back to this song.
I’m glad I did. The track could easily be mistaken for a SEL track, as it is superbly camouflaged in an otherwise stereotypical SEL album. As with all other songs I really like, I heard it a few hundred times before moving on to anything else. A gem of a song, please don’t ignore it.
I hope this experiment paves the way for more Amit Trivedi albums in the Johar camp. He could do with and thoroughly deserves some mass exposure. And more songs to singer Kavita Seth too please.
Meanwhile, SEL can go reinvent themselves in some different genres and stretch their abilities.
A win-win situation for me, I say.

16 comments
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October 5, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Pratik
Hello, I’m a junior to you and belong to PICT Art Circle… I’ve heard a lot about you and have been following your blog for quite some time now… You write amazingly well… and I’m actually in awe of your writing…
Considering your music reviews, I’ve read all of them and I very much agree to them. and I’m happy to have realized that my music tastes match with a music-legend from art circle.
While going through this particular post, I was wondering why haven’t you yet mentioned about ‘Iktara’… But later, I was glad to see you did… ‘Iktara’ is a superb song and I listen to it everyday almost 5-6 times…
Cheers
October 5, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Pratik
and I wasn’t actually aware that ‘Iktara’ is composed by Amit Trivedi, unless you mentioned it… Thanks
October 5, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Manasi
“The dream” is to have Iktara on while I take my car out for my first solo drive on Pashan road.
Fabulous song, makes me go in a trance..
October 5, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Ashish
Therez a male version of Iktara as well… think that one had more soul in it…Saw it in the movie but havent managed to find it online anywhere…send me the link if you know
October 6, 2009 at 4:13 am
Vedang
SEL _does_ do something different once in a while (Johnny Gaddaar!), but yes, by and large they tend to be repetitive. My fav SEL album would have to be Dil Chahta Hai though!
October 6, 2009 at 10:50 am
Deepak Iyer
@Pratik : I am thoroughly flattered, thank you [:)]
P.S. : Weren’t you the drummer of Bandwidth in 2005 ?
@Manasi : You might want to brainstorm better dreams [:D]
@Ashish : Sure, let me know if you find it.
@Vedang : Johnny Gaddar was again typical SEL save for a song or two.
Here’s the thing about DCH, in retrospect DCH seems another typical album of SEL. It’s just that it was fresh when it came out. Lakshya stands the test of time and genre. Just my opinion.
October 6, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Pratik
No, sir… I’m not the drummer Pratik Munot… There’s always been confusion with that… I belong to the current batch, i.e. the batch who’ll pass out in 2010…
October 6, 2009 at 10:28 pm
docmitasha
i loved iktara, and i also didn’t realize it was a trivedi track. that explains it, because i’ve been feeling pretty tired of recent SEL work. Blue was thorougly disappointing, which was huge for me to admit. I actually tried multiple times but couldn’t get into a single track. A shame…
Iktara is gorgeous, and as I keep listening to it I realize it has all the qualities of a Trivedi song, including choosing a lovely, emotion-filled voice.
October 6, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Deepak Iyer
@Pratik : Yes I got the confusion cleared from Manan.
@docmitasha : Blue, I’ll have to agree. But give Bhoola Tujhe and Fiqrana a try. Bhoola Tujhe I have really taken a liking to. The rest of the album is rubbish.
Fully agree with the Amit Trivedi comments.
October 11, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Wake Up Sid – a review. « News You Can't Use !
[...] the superb little gem from Amit Trivedi, is used very effectively, and I am glad it wasn’t wasted. But I [...]
October 13, 2009 at 12:22 am
Nikhil
my favorite SEL album would be TZP
October 13, 2009 at 3:29 am
Deepak Iyer
@Nikhil : I kinda already covered you in the post, so you didn’t really have to say that your fav is something other than Lakshya [:)]
To each his own – Lakshya is a more complete work in terms of songs and background score.
About TZP, did you hear that Shankar Mahadevan got a National Award in the Best Male Singer category for Maa. Seriously, WTF ?
October 17, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Ashish
no connection with wake up sid..but did you check rehaman’s passage
http://www.passage-experience.com/#/Passage/Soundtrack
October 19, 2009 at 11:36 am
Deepak Iyer
@Ashish : Thanks a ton. Review coming up soon.
March 11, 2010 at 8:09 am
Anushka
It was a very nice song babyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
May 19, 2010 at 9:52 pm
Kavita Seth interview. « News You Can't Use !
[...] Kavita Seth interview. I hadn’t seen or heard much of Kavita Seth, the singer of the wonderful Iktara from Wake Up Sid. [...]