‘Piya Tu Kaahe Rootha Re’: Javed Bashir has arrived

The singer has finally entered Bollywood with his latest song ‘Piya Tu Kaahe Rootha Re’.

KARACHI: Classical singer Javed Bashir is the recent addition to the bandwagon of Pakistani singers who have exported their talent to India. After releasing his album Subrang in India and splitting from Meekal Hasan Band (MHB), the vocalist is back on the music scene with his debut Bollywood song “Piya Tu Kaahe Rootha Re”.

The song features in the Vidya Balan starrer Kahaani and has a gloomy yet catchy tune. It seems like the composer of the song was a fan of MHB at some point, as the song has the band’s signature folksy Punjabi ring to it, or maybe it was just Bashir’s heavy vocals that demanded a similar grungy genre of music to complement it. After his amazing performance of “Aj Latha Naeeo” in “Coke Studio” season 2, the maestro has proven his vocal talent again, showing that he is someone listeners should look out for in the future.

The film, Bashir’s song will feature in, is a thriller directed and co-produced by Sujoy Ghosh Kahaani, with Balan and Parambrata Chatterjee in lead roles and will certainly attract the lovers of parallel cinema. Balan plays the character of a pregnant woman in search of her husband and the father of her child. Oddly enough, the trailer of Kahaani looks similar to her earlier film No One Killed Jessica in which she is seen investigating a witness-less murder.

What the film might do for Balan is yet to be known, but one thing is for sure, this soulful track will definitely open doors for Bashir and make his mark in the Indian music industry. Keeping the success of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Shafqat Amanat Ali in mind, one wouldn’t be surprised if he becomes the next most sought-after vocalist on the other side of the border.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2012.