Beedi – A Re-review

A single Beedi intoxicated the entire nation! Wait, I'm not talking about the Beedi that you smoke…

Almost a year after its release, everyone still seems to be reeling under the heady influence of the song Beedi from the film Omkara. Beedi can compete with any song of the year 2006 – whether it is played in a disc or a roadside dhaba, it has tremendous effect. Sunidhi Chauhan and Sukhwinder Singh have given perfect vocals which are uninhibited, unpretentious, and absolutely bindaas. Lyricist Gulzar too, it seems, had set his pen flow free while writing the lyrics for this song. The lyrics are uncouth, irreverent, and “trashy”, as Gulzar rightly calls them. But such lyrics always work wonders with the audience.

Vishal Bhardwaj’s music for Beedi, with traditional instruments like tabla, dholak and harmonium, is heavily folk. And folk is the kind of music which is tried and tested in Bollywood. It always, always works with the front benchers. But Beedi not only made the front benchers dance to its tune, it also made the couple of the year, Abhi-Ash, dance to its tune in their very own sangeet.

Beedi does not need any review at all. And this, here, is no review for Beedi. This is just a reaffirmation: that Beedi is one helluva song!


(also posted at campus18 blogs. )