Composer duo Salim Sulaiman have been nurturing new musical talents for quote some time now, as is evident from their Merchant Records. The latest artist in their roster is Rajiv Sundaresan with O Raahi, an ambient travel anthem. Sundaresan also handles the production while Yashita Sharma supports him with her vocals. KF Loy’s lyrics charger familiar territory with themes like life being a journey and travelers heading out on an unknown path.

While Sundaresan’s vocals are nuanced, they might still not stand out much to give the song a distinct voice. But still the song does serve its purpose as a travel song and is suited for a driving journey of sorts. In fact, the video itself features its artist driving and singing out his tunes. 

So, even though the song might not offer something new to the table, it’s still a good effort at building a travel anthem instead of the same old romantic ballads that have been oversaturating the non-film pop scene as of now. Coming back to the themes of O Raahi, the lyrics are broadly general in its metaphor of a “wandering traveler” and hence can be applied in different cases.

One can think of it as a song on traveling in the literal sense like the accompanying music video but it can also be applied in the larger sense as the lyricist intended. We indeed can never travel in one straight path and our journeys might waver with time.

And as cliched as it might sound, songs like these tell the listener on how the key is to just follow their heart. And it seems like Rajiv Sundaresan is indeed following his heart. His future discography would make for interesting additions to his ongoing journey. 

Verdict: An ambient travel anthem