Movie Details of Mission Kashmir
Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Label: Tips
Director: Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Kashmir's beautiful landscape has inspired a lot of great music in Bollywood across time (latest of which was Fitoor last year), as has the turbulent political situation in the region. Mission Kashmir covered both at length, thereby presenting great scope for a musical. It was still early days for composers Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy – their career-defining Dil Chahta Hai wouldn't come out until a year later – but the trio already had a bunch of promising compositions in their bag.
In Mission Kashmir they would deliver their finest work to that date – in fact one of their best soundtracks ever – that catered to mainstream sensibilities while deftly evoking local folk elements as well (songs like Bumbro and Rind Posh Maal contained references to traditional Kashmiri folk pieces).
Best Song of Mission Kashmir: It is probably the over-exposure to Bumbro and Rind Posh Maal that led me to pay closer attention to the other songs from the album and realise what a gem of a composition Socho Ke Jheelon Ka Sheher Ho is. The melody had a kind of freshness we associate with mountains and early mornings, and became something of a starting point for some of the romantic melodies Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy composed later in life. The arrangement is kept sedate, with a touch of folksiness, enhancing the song's charm. And it also helps that in the song's video, Preity Zinta looks like a million dollars wearing the Kashmiri attire.
The Mission Kashmir Playlist:
Listen to the entire album of Mission Kashmir here:
(With contributions by Praveen VR, co-founder of musicaloud.com)