Katyar Kaljat Ghusali is the soundtrack to the 2015 Marathi film of the same name directed by Subodh Bhave based on the 1967 stage play by Purushottam Darvhekar. The film features 17 songs—which included original songs composed by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy (in their Marathi debut) and the recreations of original music from the play composed by Jitendra Abhisheki and written by Darvhekar. The original songs had lyrics written by Sameer Samant, Mangesh Kangane, Mandar Cholkar and Prakash Kapadia. The soundtrack was released by Zee Music Company on 16 October 2015.
Background
Shankar Mahadevan felt it challenging on creating an original classical soundtrack, as well as retaining the flavour of the play.[1] He did not want to tamper the sanctity of Abhisheki's music as "it is the DNA of every Maharashtrian" but had an opportunity to compose several genres which includes, Bandish, qawwali, bhajan and semi-classical music given his chance to widen his musical scope since the past 30 years.[2][3]Ehsaan Noorani felt it as a learning experience on being influenced with classical music, who praised Mahadevan as a maestro in that genre.[4]
Vipin Nair of Music Aloud gave 9 out of 10, saying "First time that Shankar Ehsaan Loy get to do an all-out classical album, and they produce one of their best ever works" and called it as a "classy Marathi debut from the trio".[5] Karthik Srinivasan of Milliblog called it as a "stunning Marathi debut by the trio, that aligns more with Shankar’s musical sensibilities."[6] Preethi Kulkarni of BollywoodLife wrote "The soulful notes of classical music will echo in your ears amidst today's commercial masala tracks".[7] Subhash K. Jha's analysis on Firstpost over bringing classical music back to Bollywood, described the film "as an effective instrument of change whereby the flourishing annihilation of indigenous sounds in our cinema is stunned and reversed". He said that the music transported the audience to "a world of unhampered tonal ripeness" plucked from Indian classical instruments to contemporary audience with sincerity and passion.[2]
Industry response
Katyar Kaljat Ghusali's success was heavily attributed to the film's classical music, as the predominant factor.[8] Actor-director Mahesh Manjrekar also opined that "Music is the hero of Katyar [Kaljat Ghusali]. There are many people like me who have not heard the originals sung by Hindustani classical vocalist Vasantrao Deshpande."[9] Shashi Vyas, founder of the classical music event company, Pancham Nishad said that: "In an age of multiple musical styles and platforms, it is a tedious process to get people inclined towards classical music. But I must say that KKG has broken that bottleneck [...] The centrality of this movie is music, which is pulling all kinds of music aficionados to the theatres [...] If out of one lakh people going to watch KKG, even 1,000 are converted to follow classical music, it is a good beginning."[8]
Accolades
In addition to the following awards, the film's music was considered for the UNESCO's Fellini medal for Outstanding Achievement in Music.[10]
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