Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities - Soundtrack

Soundtrack

A.R. Rahman has composed the music on lyrics written by Rahat Indori, M. F. Husain, and Sukhwinder Singh. The music was released on 24 January 2004 creating great controversies regarding the song Noor-Un-Ala which had lyrics directly adapted from the Koran. The soundtrack of the movie got high appreciations from the critics. Rahman composed some of his career best songs for this movie. The background score for the film was also composed by Rahman. Rahman goes completely into Qawwali rhythms for Hyderabad, a rustic, earthy, Arabic rhythms for Jaisalmer and a rich lavish strings for Prague and brings out the essence and cultures of all the 3 cities through his enticing scores.

The initial lines of "Chinnamma Chilakamma" give a feel of South Indian peppy number but as Sukhwinder Singh picks up his lines, Hyderabadi accent is revealed. The lyrics are also penned by Sukhwinder Singh. "Rang Hai" is like a rustic mysterious cry of a woman. Alka Yagnik is the main vocalist whilst Lebanese singer Dallinda provided additional vocals. "Dhuan Dhuan" is a sultry and seductive number sung by Asha Bhonsle. Additional vocals is by Kunal and percussions by Rahman's usual assosciate Sivamani. A. R. Rahman said about recording of this song at the filmfare: "For one song, we started with no tune and no lyrics either. One afternoon I bumped into Lataji and Ashaji in London. I asked Ashaji if she'd do a song with me the next day. She had to go to Scotland the next day. But she returned in a few days and we finished the track "Dhuan Dhuan" in four hours in London." "Yeh Rishta" is a melody sung by Reena Bhardwaj who has previously worked with Rahman in a chartbuster song for the Tamil movie Baba. It was later reused by Rahman in Tamil movie Sakkarakatti as "Naan Epodhu" with the same singer which then became a chartbuster. It was picturised as Tabu's solo entrance piece in the film. "Do Kadam" is highly regarded as one of Rahman's best compositions. This song is sung by Sonu Nigam with lyrics provided by Rahat Indori. Planetbollywood referred to this song as the best from Sonu Nigam. The controversial song "Noor-Un-Ala-Noor" is a Sufi style song sung by Murtaza Khan and Qadir Khan, together called Khan brothers. Lyrics for the song was by M. F. Hussain which slightly adapted the Koranic verses honourung Allah to honour the lead character Meenaxi. M. F. Hussain wrote in The Hindu about this song, "There is a qawwali written by me and sung by classical musicians Ustad Ghulam Mustafa and his son for which Rahman has tuned unusual music. The film opens with this qawwali, the picturisation of which is a major highlight...The qawwali is exultant about the presence of the light and what a light it is! It is a Sufi thought, a thought that keep us going even when there is pitch darkness."

"Cyclist's Rhythm" and "Potter’s Village" were instrumentals composed by A. R. Rahman with percussions by Sivamani and flute by Navin Kumar in the former and percussions by Hossam Ramzy and strings by John Themis in the latter.