AUDIO/VIDEO SCAN
A simplicity that sells

Swapna Roy is not a regular singer. She is actually the wife of Subrata Roy, Chairman of Sahara Parivar. With this album, she makes her first foray into the professional world of music.

Her singing does not have the depth of a trained singer but the voice is sonorous and there is honesty in her performance, which appeals because of its simplicity. 

Perhaps that is the reason why this has become one of the top albums in the Radio Mirchi national popularity charts. 

Shaheen Iqbal’s lyrics are set to music by Sanjeev Srivastava.

Jagjit Singh and Swapna Roy are the only soft melody makers on the charts. Others to feature in the charts are remix and Indipop artistes.

This album of ghazals has been composed and sung by eminent artiste of Gwalior Gharana Suman Yadav. An "A" grade artiste of All India Radio, she has been presenting concerts in major musical platforms of the country for over two decades.

The ghazals here speak evocatively of love, separation and misery. Here the pride of place is occupied by the title song Ek ehsaan to bharpoor kiya hai tumne `85" The ghazals have been penned by Priyadarshi Thakur "Khayal".

These Sufi songs by Hans Raj Hans have been heard before but now they have been released in the video format by Music Today. This is a live recording of the performance of the celebrated singer at Swarutsav 2003 in Delhi.

One advantage of the live recording is that the artiste strays from the beaten track, making the event memorable. Here he does so right in the beginning by comparing classical love with the "commercial one" practised today. The longest and most thrilling number is Tere ishq nachaya kar tha tha thaiyan. Since it runs into 21 minutes, it simply sweeps you off your feet.

The album closes with the video of Nit Khair mangan sohniya main teri. — ASC

This feature was published on July 17, 2004