Ru Ba Ru makes a quiet appearance in the bundle of music releases this week, pinned against the highly anticipated Kidnap. Directed by Arjun Bali and produced under the banner of Percept Picture Company in association with Zee Motion Pictures, Ru Ba Ru stars Randeep Hooda (Monsoon Wedding, D – Underworld and Risk) and Shahana Goswami who is currently wowing audience with her phenomenal performance in the rocking Rock On!!. The music was directed by newcomers Satyadev Burman, Sammeruddin as well as Speed of Sound and the tracks have various lyricists. It also boasts an impressive list of playback singers including Kunal Ganjawala, Shreya Ghosal, Sunidhi Chauhan and Jaspinder Narula, who makes a rare appearance.
The album gets off to a wonderful start with a Bhangra version of the title song Ru Ba Ru performed brilliantly by Sujha Haider, who also penned the lyrics of this track. The track grabs your interest in the album instantly. The music is a great mix of Punjabi and western instruments with themes of fun and dance intertwined with shades of intense emotions. The lyrics encompass Hindi, Punjabi and English and they are simple yet effective romantic lines that depict the ecstatic feeling of being in love coupled with the anxiety of the likelihood of separation. Jaspinder Narula makes a much awaited appearance and sings the female version of the track that appears later on the album. After singing extensively in the late 90s and bagging the Filmfare of best playback singer female for Pyar to Hona Hi Tha, Narula faded in the background after the millennium. This track communicates why we need to hear more of her. Her voice is full of enthusiasm and yet still retains an intense emotive element when singing the emotional parts of the song.
Next is the emotionally charged Tham Ja, Ruk Ja. The track is sung by Ranjit Barot who becomes one with the emotional lyrics and delivers an expressive rendition of the song. The music has a subtle Spanish touch to it with fine use of guitars and the piano. The lyrics beautifully penned by Soumik Sen, are about freezing time and savouring the magnificence of the moment.
Kunal Ganjawala and Sundhi Chauhan sing the delightfully romantic and downright cute Mitti Ki Kushboo, which makes you smile and sway to the song in no time. Both singers render the song brilliantly and complement each other well. Soumik once again pens the lyrics well, that very simply tells of the love the couple have for each other. The music is somewhat contemporary with a light dhol like beat throughout the song (akin to Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’s title song) mixed with the surprising electric guitar solo in middle and a brilliant finish with violins. 
The 3rd version of the title song is sung by Vijay Prakash and an unknown female artist. It is a slow number that is easy on the ears. The music is comprised of beautifully arranged western instruments with a subtle techno quality to them. Aditya Narayan simply and effectively (which seems to be album’s mantra) pens this lyrically short song. Vijay and his partner in the duet sound fresh and mirror each other’s renditions.
Na Dekho is a slow and sexy number rendered excellently by Suzane D’Mello who takes director Arjun Bali’s sensual lyrics to a whole new level. Brilliantly written without making the romantic nature of the song seem vulgar or explicit, ‘Na Dekho’ will probably be used as a situational or background number. Sameeruddin’s music is slow paced and has an even and steady beat to it that matches Suzane singing as well as the portions where she merely says the lyrics. The guitar arrangements are beautiful.
Shreya Ghosal delivers a knockout performance with Tera Woh Pyaar. Her rendition is a beautiful and clever hybrid of classical and modern and can easily be deemed to be one of her best songs. The lyrics are equally brilliant and they talk of remembering the love lost and hoping for its return. Speed of Sound’s music is rocking, literally. One is reminded of the recent musical genius of Rock On!! with this number. Brilliant work on lead guitar and drums.
The rock keeps on keeping with Yeh Pal by Akshay Verma. It has music by Sammeruddin and lyrics are penned by Verma too. A well written track, it is delivered by Verma with great enthusiasm. It is a foot-tapping number about lessons in life and is bound to become a favourite. As with its predecessor, the music makes excellent use of guitar and drums.
Sundhi Chauhan who is usually relegated to singing item numbers sheds her item girl image and delivers a classically potent performance with Tere Bina Hori. The track reminds you of her brilliant rendition of ‘Eman Ka Asar’ in Dor and makes you wonder why we have not heard her in a classical avatar more often. With excellent music direction by Satyadev Burman and equally beautiful traditional lyrics by Soumik, this track is magnificent. The supporting vocals of Sneh Suresh, Sharvan Suresh and the delightful choir of kids is what makes this track more beautiful. The song changes tunes with the kids’ English lyrics akin to nursery rhymes and the traditional lyrics but never give the impression of two opposing genres of music. The classical and the modern themes go hand and hand efficiently.
Manchali has Sunidhi behind the mike once more as she dons the classical cape again in what can be termed as a Qawali for the digital age. Once again the musical and lyrical geniuses, Satyadev and Soumik astound the listener with revolutionised classical arrangements and traditional poetic lyrics. Sunidhi obviously steals the show and should definitely be awarded as being one most the talented and versatile singers in Indian Music.
Krishna starts drawing the album to a close with Jogi. The Punjabi lyrics have been well penned by director Arjun Bali while Sammeruddin provides a nice blend of classic Punjabi and western music. The brilliant guitar arrangements have to be separately commended. Krishna sounds like the 21st century equivalent of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and it is such as shame that such talent is rarely witnessed in the flood of albums Indian Cinema has every year.
The final and shortest track of the album is Beautiful Day which is an English number sung well by Chester Misquitter with music by Sammeruddin. While it is easy on the ears and has reasonable lyrics it falls short in comparison to the previous 11 tracks.
All in all, Ru Ba Ru is one of the few albums released this year that can be listened to effortlessly without having the need to skip a track. There is hardly a bad track in the album. It fresh and new with classical Indian tunes fused cleverly with contemporary sounds. Moreover, it makes excellent use of new talents India and has undoubtedly made Sunidhi Chauhan reach new heights. Ru Ba Ru is a must addition to every music lover’s library and will certainly to be an album you will want to hear more and more of.
