Anurag Mishra’s ‘Rang’ Album Plays Out Like a Movie Soundtrack

Mumbai-based singer-songwriter Anurag Mishra was so committed to the idea of writing an album that mirrored an entertaining movie soundtrack that he also created “Rasbhari,” a playful item number of sorts.

Produced by Hrishi Giridhar (from alternative act Anand Bhaskar Collective) and with lyrics co-written by Alok Ranjan Srivastava, “Rasbhari” is also strategically placed last on Mishra’s latest seven-track album Rang. It’s like a trump card, according to Mishra. He adds, “Nine out of 10 people who heard the album would call or text back to say they didn’t expect a song like this on the album.” By his own admission, it was a risk to place “Rasbhari” on Rang, but then Mishra thought about the fact that he was making an independent album. “If I can’t experiment in my indie album, where can I experiment? If five producers and three directors are sitting on my head, I don’t think I can experiment that much,” he says with a laugh.

Since the release of his 2019 album Project Swa, Mishra has been working on his music alongside singing, writing and composing for film and OTT soundtracks as well. That includes the series Rocketry: The Nambi Effect and Sweet Kaaram Coffee and the movie Karma Strikes. The mainstream acclaim came even as Mishra released his second collection of songs, Lifafe in 2022. The artist likens it to two parallel lives. After starting out as a singer-composer right from 2017 in Mumbai, he realized if he wasn’t “killing it in the live scene” as a performer, Bombay would be harsh to him. So, he diversified into taking on projects for screen as a composer and lyricist. The unpredictability of when work comes his way is still very much there. “I try to control what is controllable,” he says, referring to his independent music.

Rang – which also brings in producer Siddharth Pandit, singer Ronkini Gupta (on the lead single “Tham Zaraa”) and artist The Rajasthani Choro – puts forward Mishra at this most sublime. “Rang is my way of manifesting a film as a music director. This is how I would like my film to sound,” he says. From the gentle love song “Tham Zaraa” (which has Mishra even acting in the music video) to the sensuous lo-fi vibes of “Kyun Na” and the tabla-infused “Wafaaein” and an intelligently-crafted pop song like “Baarhaa” that’s reminiscent of early A.R. Rahman, Rang has a lot going for it.

“Soorat” draws from trip-hop with a sense of melancholy and grandiosity, while “Phurr” has what Mishra describes as “bubbly energy.” He adds about how the title ties in with the theme of the album, “It [Rang] represents life, and life does not have a singular color. The beauty of the word ‘rang’ is that it’s the same word for singular and plural terms. I’ve used the word in a way that it may seem at first that it’s just about one rang, but it’s about seven colors.”

With the songs already out and a short film out for “Tham Zaraa,” Mishra has enlisted actor and poet Sharib Hashmi for the next “musical film” for the song “Wafaaein,” slated to release in March. While Hashmi was originally keen to sing on a song off Rang, the project was already wrapped up. Now, Mishra says that Hashmi will lead a “Wafaaein 2.0” version of the song, releasing as a bonus track of sorts.

Mishra went through 2023 without releasing a collection of songs and he hopes to compensate for that by possibly putting out another album later this year. He has eight songs and a theme tying the upcoming material all together. He’s also working with music entrepreneur Ravdeep Anand to build a holistic artist brand which also includes sync placements for his originals. Mishra adds, “I just want to keep my head down work and let the music do the talking.”

Listen to ‘Rang’ below. Stream on more platforms here.