Mastani Film Songs

[Maggie Szydlowski]

BajiraoMastani is the soundtrack album, composed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali with assistance by Shreyas Puranik and Devrath to the 2015 Hindi film of the same name. The film stars Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra in lead roles. The album, originally recorded in Hindi features nine songs, and was released on 31 October 2015 by Eros Music. The original score of the film is composed by Sanchit Balhara.[4]

The music in the film is situational and narrative in nature. The songs were conceived progressively with the development of film script that was completed in twelve years. Bhansali was inspired by the music of Mughal-e-Azam to compose the film soundtrack. The songs cover genres of Marathi folk, Sufi, lavani, qawwali and Indian classical apart from fusion of different ragas in single tracks.

Upon release, music critics anticipated in positive that the tunes will match visuals, justifying lyrical interpretations. Critics noted the album as semi-classical, emphasizing more on harmonies, melodies and rhythms. Although the background score was called thunderous and elaborate, well into the film's soundscape, it was criticised for overuse and strength.

Bhansali was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director for his music direction. However, Shreya Ghoshal won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer for the song "Deewani Mastani". Artistes Justin Jose and Biswadeep Chatterjee won the National Film Awards for Best Audiography, the former awarded for final re-recording, whereas the latter for sound design. The film score was nominated under Best Original Music category at the Asian Film Awards 2016.[5]

Sanjay Leela Bhansali took inspiration for the songs from the film Mughal-E-Azam (1960). For the track "Albela Sajan", Bhansali has tuned Kishori Amonkar, who has sung the original track in the raag Bhoopali. The composition was blended with another raag titled Ahir Bhairav. Bhansali added that Shiv Kalyan Raja, a Marathi album by Hridaynath Mangeshkar, apart from Marathi folk and classical music were inspirations for the soundtrack of Bajirao Mastani. The track "Mohe Rang Do Laal" was composed when Bhansali was waiting at the airport after his flight got cancelled. The initial composition of "Deewani Mastani" dates to twelve years back where Bhansali conceived the track while having a shower. He adds: "That was the first time I had thought of making Bajirao Mastani as a film."[6] The song opens with Marathi lyrics "Nabhatoon aali apsara, ashi sundara, saaz sazvuna" which translates to "A fairy has stepped down from the skies, so beautiful and all dressed up."[7] Lyricist Prashant Ingole, on writing for the song "Gajanana" stated: "I was asked to write an aarti for Ganpati and I wanted to do something that was never done before. So I went back home and asked my mother the different names of Ganeshji, and jotted them down." The song "Gajanana" was composed by Shreyas Puranik.[8]

Justin Jose K. was involved the key sound mixing of the soundtrack and original score.[9] According to him, some scenes required a lot of probe into the characters and the mood.[9] His team involved for sound mix worked for nearly 600 hours for a month and a half.[9] They had to study the characters, the period of the film and the requirement as directed by Bhansali to set the sounds right on Dolby Atmos.[9]

Music critic Joginder Tuteja from Bollywood Hungama gave the album 3.5 stars (out of 5) saying: "Bajirao Mastani soundtrack is on the expected lines. A heavy album with as many as 10 tracks, it is high on classical base with a few potentially popular songs in there as well. Though at least half the songs in there are primarily situational, given Sanjay Leela Bhansali's expertise when it comes to spinning around wonderful visuals, they can be expected to make a good impression on screen."[10] Critic R. M. Vijayakar in his review for India-West gave the soundtrack a rating of 4.5 out of 5 and described the album to be a "fragrant rose". He stated: "The Maharashtrian ambiance, complete with riffs, choruses and traditional Marathi verse and excerpts, dominates "Bajirao Mastani's fascinating score, easily Sanjay Leela Bhansali's finest musical outing since "Devdas (2002)."[11] Aelina Kapoor from Rediff.com gave the album a score of 3 out of 5, stated that, "The music of Bajirao Mastani is a roller-coaster ride. Though there isn't anything wrong about Bhansali's tunes here, there are quite a few ups and downs in the 10 songs in the soundtrack. A lot of qawwali and romance in Bajirao Mastani's soundtrack."[12]

The first single from the soundtrack album "Gajanana" was launched on 23 September 2015, at Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Balewadi Stadium in Pune in the presence of film's director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone.[28] The second single from the film, titled "Deewani Mastani" was launched on 21 October 2015 at an event in Delhi.[29]

After the release of soundtrack album on 31 October 2015, the third single, titled "Pinga" was scheduled to be released in a launch event on 14 November 2015, but it was cancelled due to the November 2015 Paris attacks.[30] It was then officially released online on 15 November 2015.[31]

The song titled "Malhari" was launched at an event in Bhopal on 29 November 2015.[32] The song "Albela Sajan"[33] and "Aayat"[34] along with "Malhari" were released in that order, forming promotional singles after the soundtrack album release.[35]

"Deewani Mastani" is a song from the 2015 Hindi film Bajirao Mastani. The song is composed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and sung by Shreya Ghoshal, while backing vocals were given by Ganesh Chandanshive, Mujtaba Aziz Naza, Altamash Faridi, Farhan Sabri.[1] The lyrics were majorly penned by Siddharth-Garima. Ganesh Chandanshive penned the Marathi lyrics while the Qawwali lyrics were written by Nasir Faraaz.[2] The song features Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Priyanka Chopra in the video.[3] The movie was dubbed in Tamil and Telugu and hence the song was also released as "Thindaadi Poagiraen" in Tamil[4] and "Mastani" in Telugu[5] on 25 November 2015. Shreya Ghoshal rendered her voice to all the three versions of the song. The song was reprised in MTV Unplugged Season 6 and was also rendered by Ghoshal.

Deewani Mastani is recorded, mixed and mastered by Tanay Gajjar at Wow & Flutter Studio in Mumbai.[6] The song is arranged and programmed by Shail-Pritesh.[7] The song was choreographed by Remo D'Souza, who made the dance a combination of Classical and Contemporary.[8] Remo complimented Deepika Padukone for her dance skills by saying that her movements and expressions are perfect.[9] The shooting of the song took ten days at a very expensive set created at Film City, Mumbai, in which over 20,000 intricately designed mirrors were used.[10] Sanjay Leela Bhansali took inspiration from K. Asif's Mughal-e-Azam for this song in trying to create the Aina Mahal. It is his contemporary version of the classic song "Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya". The premise between the two songs is also similar. While in that "Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya" courtesan Anarkali dances for Prince Salim, in this one princess Mastani dances and declares her love for Bajirao.[11] After the release of the song, the set of the song was turned into a museum.[12] Originally, The song was Offered to Monali Thakur but eventually went to Shreya Ghoshal.[13]

The song was released in a grand event held in Delhi on 21 October 2015. The launch was followed by Day 1 of Blenders Pride Fashion Week where Deepika Padukone turned show stopper for the designer Anju Modi, who also designed costumes for the Sanjay Leela Bhansali film.[14] The song was also uploaded on Eros Now YouTube channel on 22 October 2015.

The music video features Deepika Padukone as Mastani dancing in a grand hall surrounded by 20,000 mirrors. She is accompanied by a group of back-up dancers. For the song, she wears a heavy golden anarkali lehenga, and sings directly to Ranveer Singh (as Bajirao), expressing her love for him while he watches her happily. Sitting above in a balcony, Priyanka Chopra as Kashibai looks down upon the action. Though at first mesmerized, she comes to a dismayed realization by the end of the song that Bajirao and Mastani are in love.[15]

The teaser video was released on 22 October 2015 and the full video on 2 May 2016. The music video was highly praised for Padukone's performance[16] and the "sweet voice" rendered by Shreya Ghoshal.[17] Remo D'Souza won the National Film Award for Best Choreography. Both the versions of video received 50+ million views leading to a total of 100+ million views on YouTube.

The song was inspired by "Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya" from Mughal-e-Azam and thus was observed as its modern version, while Deepika was compared to Madhubala.[18] The song, turned extremely popular and topped various countdown charts. By October 2016, the official music video crossed over 46 Million views and the official film version crossed over 15 Million views on YouTube.[19] Due to popularity and high demand, the singer of the song, Shreya Ghoshal, performed this number in many of her concerts, in and outside India.[20] The music composition by Sanjay Leela Bhansali was also highly applauded. Amitabh Bachchan praised Bhansali and wrote on his blog, "The music tracks of 'Bajirao Mastani'... quite something... the purity of music and its tributaries seem to be getting revived.".[21] Reviewing for Firstpost, critic Subhash K. Jha praised Ghoshal's singing by saying, "The soundtrack of Bajirao Mastani has no Lata Mangeshkar. But it has lots of Shreya Ghoshal, Lata Ji's most melodious disciple. This girl can bend the most evocative lyrics into seductive shapes and leave us wondering if she is trying to tell us something beyond the words.".[22] Critic R.M. Vijaykar, reviewing for India-West, praised the composition and "electrifying" vocals of Ghoshal by saying, "The heroine of the score is Shreya Ghoshal, Bhansali's own magic find." and described Bhansali's work as creditable.[23] Critic Surabhi Redkar, reviewing for Koimoi praised the touch given by Maharashtrian and Qawwali lyrics saying, "The song is not just a treat to watch, but to hear it too!".[24]

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