Rozana – The Singer Amitabh Returns.

So Big B is back with another song to his credit: Rozana.

Composed by Vishal Bhardwaj, this soundtrack for Ram Gopal Verma’s film, Nishabd, is an extremely passionate love ballad, to which Amitabh Bachchan has done full justice. Rozana, which doesn’t even make its presence felt in the film, but instead comes on as an added song, is a heartfelt melody about a lover’s memories of his beloved, after they part. And Bachchan’s vocals are rendering, meaningful and expressed to a degree which makes us marvel at the man’s genius.

But Rozana comes as an instant surprise for the casual Bollywood fan, at the direction Bachchan has turned into, in his journey as a singer. Bachchan’s fans will always remember him for his nostalgic dance numbers like Mere Angne Mein, Mein Hoon Anthony Gonzalviz, Rang Barse, and more recently, Shava Shava. These are the songs which tinged Bollywood, and these are the songs for which Bachchan is most noted, as a singer. It’s not that Amitabh Bachchan has not delved into intense, serious musical territory before – he has done it. But none of those songs were ever as successful as his colorful, peppy numbers. So, it remains to be seen whether the huge fan base we have, fed on decades of item number song culture, will be ready to accept his increasing number of melancholy, musically rich songs or not.

Is Rozana a coming of age song, not only for Bachchan, but for the whole musical diaspora that is Bollywood? Is it a sign of Bachchan’s maturity as a singer and an actor? It quite seems so, but audiences still haven’t grown enough to love this kind of music. So, we guess we just have to wait, don’t we?

(by soumya & saumya)