Rockstar (soundtrack)
Encyclopedia
Rockstar is the soundtrack album
, composed by A. R. Rahman
, to the 2011
Hindi musical film
Rockstar
, directed by Imtiaz Ali
, and starring Ranbir Kapoor
and Nargis Fakhri
in the lead roles. The film also stars Shammi Kapoor
, makes his last silver screen appearance in this film. The film is jointly produced by Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Ltd
and Eros International. The album features fourteen tracks, and was released on 30 September 2011 by T-Series.
replacing Imtiaz Ali's previous associate, Pritam
. The soundtrack features 14 tracks overall, with all lyrics penned by Irshad Kamil
. Mohit Chauhan
had lent his voice for nine songs. The audio rights were bought by T-Series. According to Rahman, Rockstar is "a character driven film and as one can guess from the title, there will be lots of guitar". Rockstar is a musical journey that sails through classical rock, ballads, Gujarati folk, the Sufi music and even a gypsy note from an unheard Czech tradition. In an interview, Imtiaz Ali talked about what he told A. R. Rahman about the lead character of the film, "I told him how Jordan, the protagonist, I told him how is inarticulate, how he can express himself only through music, how his music is influenced by not only his situation but also by the music of the place he visits. So when Jordan is in Prague
hanging about with gypsies, he imbibes their spirit and makes gypsy music. This is what Hawaa Hawaa is. Likewise, when Jordan is thrown out of his house, he goes to Hazrat Nizamuddin dargah, spends time with the Qawwals, absorbs their music and plays with them. That journey was not only about understanding music, but also about understanding life."
"Kun Faya Kun" (an Arabic phrase which means 'be, and it is'), a qawwali
composed by Rahman for the film, is dedicated to Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya. The Dichotomy of Fame, a shehnai-guitar instrumental jugalbandi, is picturised on the late Shammi Kapoor
as a gloomy-looking shehnai player in the image of Ustad Bismillah Khan, jamming with Ranbir Kapoor. It is Shammi Kapoor's last appearance in a film. "Saadda Haq
", the climax song of the film, has Ranbir Kapoor
performing in front of a live audience. Ranbir had travelled to Chennai
and stayed with Rahman for a week in order to "feel the song imbibe and absorb it" so that when he finally performs it, the song would be an "extension of his personality."
called the album a "milestone" in the history of Bollywood music. A review by Mumbai Mirror concluded, "Mohit shines through with his versatility, Irshad Kamil's lyrics make simplicity seem profound and Rahman shows who's the boss. Respect." The review hailed the album as the "album of the year" and as "one of A. R. Rahman's best Hindi scores." Hindustan Times
commented that, "It may come across as a surprise, but the music of this Imtiaz Ali film is nothing like its name suggests." CNN-IBN stated that The soundtrack too belongs completely to Rahman as his previous albums but he does not come very close to his real potential in 'Rockstar'. Koimoi.com gave the album four and a half star out of five, and said "Overall, Rockstar is a good album." Music Aloud's review called it "a soundtrack of epic proportions", giving it 9.5/10. In addition, many reviewers have hailed the track "Saadda Haq" as the "youth anthem of India"..it took 20 scenes for 1 song and there were 4 to 5 songs, every song needed a bottle of water, after the shoot there were total 1280 bottle used for the shoot.
On the second day of music release this album reached on top in world's biggest online music download store iTunes in category of "Top World Soundtracks". This is the second Indian album which creates this history. The first one was A. R. Rahman's 2010 soundtrack
for the Tamil film Enthiran (Robot).
, Jalandhar
, Ludhiana, Amritsar
, Chandigarh, Pune
, Kolkata
, Jaipur
, Lucknow
, Nagpur
, Indore
and Bangalore
. These concerts are expected to start from 19 October 2011 however A. R. Rahman
will not be part of it. Rahman will be touring in support of Rockstar album only in London
and Delhi
. Ranbir Kapoor and Nargis Fakhri, as well as singer Mohit Chauhan, will perform in mini-concerts planned by "Rockstar team".
Soundtrack album
A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television program. In some cases, not all the tracks from the movie are included in the album; however there are rare cases of songs in the trailers that do not appear in...
, composed by A. R. Rahman
A. R. Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman is an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and philanthropist. Described as the world's most prominent and prolific film composer by Time, his works are notable for integrating eastern classical music with electronic music sounds, world music genres and...
, to the 2011
Bollywood films of 2011
A list of films produced by the Bollywood film industry based in Mumbai to be released in 2011. The year 2010 has numerous films in production to be released in 2011 and beyond, as well as films that have announced release dates but have yet to begin filming. Some films in production do not have...
Hindi musical film
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
Rockstar
Rockstar (2011 film)
Rockstar is a 2011 Hindi musical film directed by Imtiaz Ali, starring Ranbir Kapoor and debutant Nargis Fakhri, with music composed by A. R. Rahman. Eros International Ltd. co-produces the film with Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Ltd...
, directed by Imtiaz Ali
Imtiaz Ali
Imtiaz Ali is a former West Indian cricketer who played in one Test against India in 1976....
, and starring Ranbir Kapoor
Ranbir Kapoor
Ranbir Kapoor is an Indian actor who appears in Bollywood movies.Making his acting debut in the 2007 film Saawariya, for which he won the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut, Kapoor went on to earn critical praise for his performance in Wake Up Sid...
and Nargis Fakhri
Nargis Fakhri
Nargis Fakhri is an American fashion model and actress. She made her feature film debut in Rockstar.-Early Life:Fakhri was born in Queens, New York to a Pakistani father and a Czech mother.-Career:...
in the lead roles. The film also stars Shammi Kapoor
Shammi Kapoor
Shammi Kapoor was an Indian film actor and director. He was a prominent lead actor in Hindi cinema from the late 1950s until the early 1970s....
, makes his last silver screen appearance in this film. The film is jointly produced by Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Ltd
Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Ltd
Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Ltd is a film production and distribution company that produces and distributes Indian films, mainly Hindi. The chief of the company is Dhillin Mehta.-Bollywood :...
and Eros International. The album features fourteen tracks, and was released on 30 September 2011 by T-Series.
Production
The music for the film is scored by A. R. RahmanA. R. Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman is an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and philanthropist. Described as the world's most prominent and prolific film composer by Time, his works are notable for integrating eastern classical music with electronic music sounds, world music genres and...
replacing Imtiaz Ali's previous associate, Pritam
Pritam
Pritam Chakraborty , better known as Pritam is a music director and composer from Kolkata who currently works in Bollywood, Mumbai.- Early life :...
. The soundtrack features 14 tracks overall, with all lyrics penned by Irshad Kamil
Irshad Kamil
Irshad Kamil is an Indian Hindi/Urdu poet and lyricist. He has written songs for many Bollywood hits like Jab We Met, Chameli, Love Aaj Kal and Rockstar .-Early life:...
. Mohit Chauhan
Mohit Chauhan
Mohit Chauhan is an Indian pop and playback singer, most known for his romantic ballads. He started his career singing Indian pop songs with the band Silk Route, which released two albums, Boondein and Pehchan. The song "Dooba Dooba" became a rave in the Indipop music scene. However, the band...
had lent his voice for nine songs. The audio rights were bought by T-Series. According to Rahman, Rockstar is "a character driven film and as one can guess from the title, there will be lots of guitar". Rockstar is a musical journey that sails through classical rock, ballads, Gujarati folk, the Sufi music and even a gypsy note from an unheard Czech tradition. In an interview, Imtiaz Ali talked about what he told A. R. Rahman about the lead character of the film, "I told him how Jordan, the protagonist, I told him how is inarticulate, how he can express himself only through music, how his music is influenced by not only his situation but also by the music of the place he visits. So when Jordan is in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
hanging about with gypsies, he imbibes their spirit and makes gypsy music. This is what Hawaa Hawaa is. Likewise, when Jordan is thrown out of his house, he goes to Hazrat Nizamuddin dargah, spends time with the Qawwals, absorbs their music and plays with them. That journey was not only about understanding music, but also about understanding life."
"Kun Faya Kun" (an Arabic phrase which means 'be, and it is'), a qawwali
Qawwali
Qawwali is a form of Sufi devotional music popular in South Asia, particularly in the Punjab and Sindh regions of Pakistan, Hyderabad, Delhi, and other parts of northern India...
composed by Rahman for the film, is dedicated to Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya. The Dichotomy of Fame, a shehnai-guitar instrumental jugalbandi, is picturised on the late Shammi Kapoor
Shammi Kapoor
Shammi Kapoor was an Indian film actor and director. He was a prominent lead actor in Hindi cinema from the late 1950s until the early 1970s....
as a gloomy-looking shehnai player in the image of Ustad Bismillah Khan, jamming with Ranbir Kapoor. It is Shammi Kapoor's last appearance in a film. "Saadda Haq
Saadda Haq
"Saadda Haq" is a song composed by A. R. Rahman for the 2011 Indian musical film Rockstar.The film stars Ranbir Kapoor, Nargis Fakhri in leading roles and is directed by Imtiaz Ali, known for his previous romantic caper Jab We Met...
", the climax song of the film, has Ranbir Kapoor
Ranbir Kapoor
Ranbir Kapoor is an Indian actor who appears in Bollywood movies.Making his acting debut in the 2007 film Saawariya, for which he won the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut, Kapoor went on to earn critical praise for his performance in Wake Up Sid...
performing in front of a live audience. Ranbir had travelled to Chennai
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
and stayed with Rahman for a week in order to "feel the song imbibe and absorb it" so that when he finally performs it, the song would be an "extension of his personality."
Release
Critical reception
The album was received with extremely positive responses critically. The Indian ExpressThe Indian Express
The Indian Express is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. It is published in Mumbai by Indian Express Group. After Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split in 1999 among his family members into two with the southern editions taking the name The New Indian Express, while the old...
called the album a "milestone" in the history of Bollywood music. A review by Mumbai Mirror concluded, "Mohit shines through with his versatility, Irshad Kamil's lyrics make simplicity seem profound and Rahman shows who's the boss. Respect." The review hailed the album as the "album of the year" and as "one of A. R. Rahman's best Hindi scores." Hindustan Times
Hindustan Times
Hindustan Times is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded in 1924 with roots in the Indian independence movement of the period ....
commented that, "It may come across as a surprise, but the music of this Imtiaz Ali film is nothing like its name suggests." CNN-IBN stated that The soundtrack too belongs completely to Rahman as his previous albums but he does not come very close to his real potential in 'Rockstar'. Koimoi.com gave the album four and a half star out of five, and said "Overall, Rockstar is a good album." Music Aloud's review called it "a soundtrack of epic proportions", giving it 9.5/10. In addition, many reviewers have hailed the track "Saadda Haq" as the "youth anthem of India"..it took 20 scenes for 1 song and there were 4 to 5 songs, every song needed a bottle of water, after the shoot there were total 1280 bottle used for the shoot.
On the second day of music release this album reached on top in world's biggest online music download store iTunes in category of "Top World Soundtracks". This is the second Indian album which creates this history. The first one was A. R. Rahman's 2010 soundtrack
Enthiran (soundtrack)
Enthiran is the soundtrack album to the 2010 Tamil science fiction film, Enthiran, directed by S. Shankar and starring Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai. The soundtrack album includes seven tracks composed by A. R. Rahman and was released Apsar Basha on July 31, 2010 by Think Music...
for the Tamil film Enthiran (Robot).
Mini-concerts
Special mini-concerts have been planned across cities including DelhiDelhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
, Jalandhar
Jalandhar
Jalandhar is a city in Jalandhar District in the state of Punjab, India. It is located 144 km northwest of the state capital, Chandigarh...
, Ludhiana, Amritsar
Amritsar
Amritsar is a city in the northern part of India and is the administrative headquarters of Amritsar district in the state of Punjab, India. The 2001 Indian census reported the population of the city to be over 1,500,000, with that of the entire district numbering 3,695,077...
, Chandigarh, Pune
Pune
Pune , is the eighth largest metropolis in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai, and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Once the centre of power of the Maratha Empire, it is situated 560 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau at the confluence of the Mula ...
, Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
, Jaipur
Jaipur
Jaipur , also popularly known as the Pink City, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. Founded on 18 November 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber, the city today has a population of more than 3.1 million....
, Lucknow
Lucknow
Lucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh in India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division....
, Nagpur
Nagpur
Nāgpur is a city and winter capital of the state of Maharashtra, the largest city in central India and third largest city in Maharashtra after Mumbai and Pune...
, Indore
Indore
Indore is one of the major city in India, the largest city and commercial center of the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India. Indore is located 190 km west of the state capital Bhopal. According to the 2011 Indian census, Indore city has a population of 1,960,631...
and Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
. These concerts are expected to start from 19 October 2011 however A. R. Rahman
A. R. Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman is an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and philanthropist. Described as the world's most prominent and prolific film composer by Time, his works are notable for integrating eastern classical music with electronic music sounds, world music genres and...
will not be part of it. Rahman will be touring in support of Rockstar album only in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
. Ranbir Kapoor and Nargis Fakhri, as well as singer Mohit Chauhan, will perform in mini-concerts planned by "Rockstar team".