Songs at the end.

Considering the theme of the movie, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Njaan Marykutty’s soundtrack features multiple songs from composer Anand Madhusoodanan and lyricist Santhosh Varma, of the motivational kind. The shortest of those is the 36-second long Cherupulliyuduppitta Poompaatta, a female solo credited to a “Nithin PK” (while Kerala is known for many dubious names, I am yet to come across a female named Nithin, so I am inclined to peg this as Manorama Music’s inefficiency). The same female singer has two more such short tracks in the album – Oru Kochu Kumbilengaanum that starts off sounding a bit like a slower version of the first song, but progresses on a slightly different, and nicer sounding route; and Penninnullil Priya Mohangalkku that comes across sounding like a textile showroom jingle! Sithara Krishnakumar leads the sprawling Ennullil Ennum that has a lovely melody and a fab arrangement to go with it (love the use of solo violin in the second half) – the only dampener is the fact that the hallelujah hook that is the culmination of each verse, sounds bland.

Biju Narayanan’s (good to hear the man) Doore Doore too begins off in a dramatic fashion before settling into a nuanced, old school-ish melody that the man delivers admirably. Thirakalethire Vannaalum is effective more for Santhosh Varma’s use of words (that Vineeth Sreenivasan sings well). Anand’s arrangement sets the anthemic template in a rather clichéd fashion and hence doesn’t work much. Uyaraan Patharaan (again starts on a theatrical use of strings kicking off the song) too is stereotypical anthem material and there isn’t much variation in the arrangement, but I like this one more than Thirakal. The male solo has been credited to Anne Amie – I am guessing this is the song Manorama intended to credit to Nithin – good singing, whoever it is. Anne Amie Vazhappilly does get the album’s best song titled Kaana Kadalaasilaaro. Solid melody from the composer (that the singer aces) punctuated with the frenetic dheem tanana bits, and ending in a crescendo-esque combination of the dheem tana chorus and Anne’s sargam – wish this song were longer.

It was with director Ranjith Sankar that Anand Madhusoodanan debuted in films, in 2012, and this is their fourth project together. And the best work from the team yet – in fact, the best work from the composer overall.

Also, a rap on the knuckles to Manorama Music for such a shoddy job with the credits – it wouldn’t hurt to spend a little bit of effort to properly credit the musicians and technicians involved in the soundtrack, you know.

Music Aloud Rating: 3/5

Top Recos: Kaana Kadalaasilaaro, Ennullil Ennum, Doore Doore

Musician credits at the end. You can listen to the songs here.

Listening to the effervescent road trip song (presumably) Paranne, the mind invariably goes back to another travel song that composer Raghu Dixit created not very long back – Shugal Laga Le. That’s not to say that the song’s infectious energy levels won’t have you grooving along, nonetheless – aside of Benny Dayal’s rendition (Dixit playing an effective chorus) of Rafeeq Ahammed’s lines, it is John Paul’s banjo bubbling along in the backdrop that contributes most to the song’s allure. The joie de vivre is a running theme also in the title song penned by Shruti Namboodiri. The arrangement is once again spot on, highlighted by the brilliant use of plucked strings (John Paul again) and some fine touches like the smattering of reggae elements in the second verse – but the clear winner here is the vocal department. Anne Amie is in splendid form leading the singing, while Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy (last seen co-composing the spectacular soundtrack of Aruvi) does some fine incorporation of vocal effects with the chorus, and Nazriya Nazim’s conversational snippets are the icing on the cake. Composer rounds up his Malayalam composing debut with the gorgeous, dreamy melody Aararo that was employed by the movie’s makers a few days back as the song to announce Nazriya’s return to films after a gap of four years. Rendering the song is fine fashion once again is Anne Amie, handling the gentle tune as skilfully as she did the boisterous Koode. A slower, more minimal version of the composition with modified lyrics is sung by Raghu Dixit himself. Nicely sung, though I prefer the Anne Amie version.

Remaining two songs of the soundtrack come from M Jayachandran. Vaanaville’s tune and arrangement are associable with the composer’s signature style from another time, so a throwback to that sound feels nice. And he gets Karthik to sing the track, who delivers as commendably as he always does. Composer does even better in his other song, the lullaby called Minnaminni that once again carries the ethereal feel that Aararo did. While the tune itself progresses beautifully, the lush backdrop sees a delectable mix of Rex Issacs and group’s violins and Kamalakar’s woodwinds. And topping everything is the singing by Abhay Jodhpurkar who – aside of sounding his soulful best – shows a remarkable grasp over the diction as compared to his last Malayalam song.

Movies involving Anjali Menon have always featured impressive music – Koode adds to that track record. A commendable composing debut in the industry for Raghu Dixit and the veteran composer M Jayachandran delivering well on his part.

Music Aloud Rating: 3.5/5

Top Recos: Aararo, Minnaminni, Koode

Musician Credits

Aararo
Music: Raghu Dixit.
Lyrics: Rafeeq Ahammed.
Singer: Anne Amie.
Music Production: Nakul Abhyankar.
Guitars, Banjo, Mandolin, Charango, Mandola: John Paul.
Additional Guitars: Raghu Dixit.
Recording Engineers: Raghu Dixit and Nakul Abhyankar
Recorded at: RDX Productions, Bangalore.
Mixing and Mastering Engineer: Balu Thankachan at 20dB SoundStudios, Chennai.

Paranne
Music: Raghu Dixit.
Lyrics: Rafeeq Ahammed.
Singer: Benny Dayal and Raghu Dixit
Music Production: Nakul Abhyankar.
Guitars, Banjo, Mandolin, Charango, Mandola: John Paul.
Additional Guitars: Raghu Dixit.
Backing Vocal Harmonies: Nakul Abhyankar.
Recording Engineers: Raghu Dixit and Nakul Abhyankar
Recorded at: RDX Productions, Bangalore.
Mixing and Mastering Engineer: Balu Thankachan at 20dB SoundStudios, Chennai.

Minnaminni
Music: M Jayachandran
Lyrics: Rafeeq Ahammed
Singer: Abhay Jodhpurkar
Song Programmed by: Mithun Ashokan & Antony George
Flute & Recorder: Kamalakar
Backing vocals: Unni Elayaraja, Namitha & Ninzy
Rhythm Programmer: Rikky & Antony George
Strings section: Rex Issacs & group
Music conductor: Unni Elayaraja
Music manager: K D Vincent.
Song Recorded, Mixed & Mastered by: Ranjith Rajan @ Muzik Lounge Studios, Chennai
Assisted by: Midhun Manoj.
Label: Muzik247

Koode (Feat. Nazria Fahadh)
Music: Raghu Dixit.
Lyrics: Shruti Namboodiri
Singer: Anne Amie, Nakul Abhyankar
Spoken Word: Nazria Fahadh
Vocal Percussions and Vocal Effects: Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy
Music Production: Nakul Abhyankar.
Guitars, Charango, Mandola and Bass: John Paul.
Additional Guitars: Raghu Dixit.
Recording Engineers: Raghu Dixit and Nakul Abhyankar
Recorded at: RDX Productions, Bangalore.
Mixing and Mastering Engineer: Balu Thankachan at 20 dB Studios, Chennai.

Aarorum
Music: Raghu Dixit.
Lyrics: Rafeeq Ahammed.
Singer: Raghu Dixit
Music Production: Nakul Abhyankar.
Electric Guitars and Bass: John Paul.
Acoustic Guitars: Raghu Dixit.
Pronunciation Supervision: Sethu Thankachan, Balu Diwakaran and Aparna Viswanathan.
Recording Engineers: Raghu Dixit and Nakul Abhyankar
Recorded at: RDX Productions, Bangalore.
Mixing and Mastering Engineer: Balu Thankachan at 20 dB Studios, Chennai.

Songs and musician credits at the end. This review comes after a viewing of the movie and hence might at times incorporate that context, so a spoiler alert, I guess.

Baba Bolta Hain Bas Ho Gaya succinctly represents the diatribe against media that Sanju often turns out to be. Puneet Sharma, Abhijat Joshi (also the movie’s writer) and Rohan Gokhale’s (one half of Rohan Rohan who have composed two of the movie’s songs – not this one though) story of “Mr. Sutron” is as light hearted as it is biting, and Papon and movie’s main man Ranbir Kapoor deliver it in style. And the song gets a good visual treatment too – not many songs in the movie have that fortune. Composer Vikram Montrose, who gives the song its groovy treatment, is also in charge of a second song in the movie – the motivational Kar Har Maidaan Fateh. The song itself is quite predictable in its progression, but what makes it engaging is the vocals – Sukhwinder Singh owning the soaring portions like he always does, while Shreya Ghoshal employed in a bass scale lending a certain heft to her voice. Making their Bollywood entry on the back of recent success in Marathi films (Ventillator and Barad last year, both had good music), Rohan Rohan have two songs in Sanju. First of which was the first song from the movie to come out – Main Badhiya Tu Bhi Badhiya, a reported attempt at creating a song with the feel of the 30s. The composers make the perfect choice of singers in Sunidhi Chauhan and Sonu Nigam for the job, the former in particular is in her element mimicking the retro effect. The song otherwise doesn’t carry much of a retro vibe about it – the arrangement appears to be aiming more at creating a comedic effect, and at that it succeeds.

Rohan Rohan’s second song too is a jolly dance number, though a more boisterous, street sounding affair seeing some fine usage of Kishore Sodha’s horns. Starts off interestingly but gets daunting after a while – despite Nakash Aziz’s best efforts. And the last two compositions come from the big man – A R Rahman. This is not the first time ARR is working in a multi-composer setting of course, but it is the first since multi-composer soundtracks have gained so much prominence. Making his debut for the Raju Hirani – Vidhu Vinod Chopra stable, Rahman starts with Ruby Ruby. While the arrangement does not convey much of a stoner vibe (Irshad Kamil’s lines do, though), it does carry a peppy 80s dance song feel about it that makes it engaging. The highlights of the track are Keba Jeremiah’s work on the bass, and Shashwat Singh’s (who sounds almost like Vishal Dadlani at times) lead vocals. The movie version of the song interestingly has an added verse of rant. The best from the composer – and the best of the album – is the other one though, the brilliant slow burner of a piece that is Mujhe Chaand Pe Le Chalo. The packaging is something akin to what used to Mikey McCleary’s mainstay at one point (that culminated in the album The Bartender) – a retro sounding melody with a waltz-y rhythm in an ambient setting to produce an addictively dark, sensual song. And Nikhita Gandhi accentuates that feel big time with her languid rendition – total winner, this!

The fact that Rajkumar Hirani went for a totally new set of composers has helped fix the repetitiveness issue that plagued his last couple of movies, but barring a couple of songs, the music still fails to make a major impact.

Music Aloud Rating: 3/5

Top Recos: Mujhe Chaand Pe Le Chalo, Baba Bolta Hai, Main Badhiya Tu Bhi Badhiya

This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.

Musician Credits

1. Song: Main Badhiya Tu Bhi Badhiya
Singers – Sonu Nigam, Sunidhi Chauhan
Music: Rohan- Rohan
Lyrics: Puneet Sharma
Additional vocals: Rohan- Rohan
Song produced by Nishadh Chandra
Additional programming: Sourav Roy
Vocals recorded by Pramod Chandorkar and Kittu Myakal at Soundideaz Studio
Mix: Steve Fitzmaurice
Music Label: T-Series

2. Song: Kar Har Maidaan Fateh
Singers: Sukhwinder Singh & Shreya Ghoshal
Music: Vikram Montrose
Lyrics: Shekhar Astitwa
Song Programmed by Vikram Montrose
Additional Programming: Bibhuti Gogoi
Sound Design: Utpal Das
Live Percussions: Pratap Rath
Live Guitars: Ishaan Das
Drums: Zorran Mendonsa
Violins: Kailash Patra
Vocals & Live recorded by Kittu Myakal
Asst. Recording Engineer: Urmila Sutar
Recording Studio: Soundideaz Studio
Mixed by: Steve Fitzmaurice
Music Label: T-Series

3. Song: Ruby Ruby
Music Director: AR Rahman
Lyrics: Irshad Kamil
Singers: Shashwat Singh&PoorviKoutish
Bass: Keba Jeremiah
Guitar: Keba Jeremiah & Chris Jason
Rhythm & Percussions: Raja & Kumar
Sunshine Orchestra conducted by: VJ Srinivasamurthy
Additional Programming: Ishaan Chhabra
Mixed by: IshaanChhabra& Deepak P A
Mastered by: Suresh Permal
Sound Engineers at Panchathan Record Inn (Chennai): Suresh Permal, Ishaan Chhabra, SanthoshDhayanidhi, TR Krishna Chetan, KarthikSekaran, Jerry Vincent, Kumaran Sivamani, KaashifRafiq, PawanChilamkurthi

Sound Engineers at AR Studios (Mumbai): R Nitish Kumar, DilshaadShaikh
Sound Engineers at AM Studios (Chennai): S.Sivakumar, Pradeep Menon, KannanGanpat, Manoj
Musicians Fixer: R Samidurai
Musician Coordinators: Vijay Iyer, Noel James, TM Faizuddin, AbdulHaiyum
Music Label: T-Series

4. Song: Baba Bolta Hain Bas Ho Gaya
Music: Vikram Montrose
Lyrics: Puneet Sharma, Abhijat Joshi & Rohan Gokhale
Singers: Papon, Ranbir Kapoor & Supriya Pathak
Song Programmed by Vikram Montrose
Sound Design: Utpal Das
Live Guitars: Appai Prachutosh Bhowmick
Vocals recorded by Kittu Myakal
Asst. Recording Engineer: Urmila Sutar
Recording Studio: Soundideaz Studio
Mixed by: Steve Fitzmaurice
Music Label: T-Series

5. Song: Bhopu Baj Raha Hain
Music: Rohan-Rohan
Lyrics: ShekharAstitwa&RohanGokhale
Singer: Nakash Aziz
Song produced by: Sourav Roy
Additional programming: Rohan- Rohan
Brass Section: Kishore Sodha
Chorus: Vivek Nair, Rahul Chitnis, NitinKarandikar&SonalTawde
Recording Studio: ENZY Studios
Mix: Steve Fitzmaurice
Music Label: T-Series

6. Song: Mujhe Chaand Pe Le Chalo
Music Director: AR Rahman
Lyrics: Irshad Kamil
Singers: Nikhita Gandhi
Bass: Keba Jeremiah
Guitar: Keba Jeremiah & Chris Jason
Rhythm & Percussions: Raja & Kumar
Sunshine Orchestra conducted by: VJ Srinivasamurthy
Additional Programming: Ishaan Chhabra
Mixed by: Ishaan Chhabra & Deepak P A
Mastered by: Suresh Permal
Sound Engineers at Panchathan Record Inn (Chennai): Suresh Permal, Ishaan Chhabra, Santhosh Dhayanidhi, TR Krishna Chetan, Karthik Sekaran, Jerry Vincent, Kumaran Sivamani, Kaashif Rafiq, Pawan Chilamkurthi
Sound Engineers at AR Studios (Mumbai): R Nitish Kumar, Dilshaad Shaikh
Sound Engineers at AM Studios (Chennai): S.Sivakumar, Pradeep Menon, Kannan Ganpat, Manoj
Musicians Fixer: R Samidurai
Musician Coordinators: Vijay Iyer, Noel James, TM Faizuddin, Abdul Haiyum
Music Label: T-Series

Songs at the end.

This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.

Ishq Di Baajiyaan opens with a choral quatrain that goes Kabhi Usey Noor Noor Kehta Hoon, immediately followed by a younger chorus singing a Na Jaa Aankhon Mein Hi Rehna phrase that fades into the backdrop, as the main song kicks in. It is this refrain that is one of the most endearing aspects of the song that has plenty going for it. The folk-infused arrangement slightly takes after another beauty that Shankar Ehsaan Loy and Gulzar produced not long back, Dilbaro (this one too features beautiful plucked strings – rabab and mandolin, I think). Accentuating the song’s charm is the touch of pathos that the composers give the cheery melody in the second verse (shades of Carnatic raga vasanthi I think – the song could have smoothly segued into A R Rahman’s Kurukku Sirutthavale/Chalo Chale Mitwa at this point!). Diljit Dosanjh, the movie’s main man, leads the singing here, and while he errs on the nuances on more than one occasion, he more than makes up for that in soul. The other gentle melody of the soundtrack, Pardesiya, is written almost entirely in Punjabi – the only time it digresses is the prayer verse. The soulful piece is delivered exceptionally by the singers (Shenaz Akhtar, Hemant Brijwasi, Shankar Mahadevan, and Ehsaan Noorani doing a surprise vocal debut with the opening humming!) – though the melody and arrangement are a more prominent throwback to the repetitive rut that SEL had got into about a decade ago (My Name is Khan is one name that instantly comes to mind).

After playing backing vocalist for the previous two songs, Shankar Mahadevan takes centre stage to deliver the Soorma Anthem. And what an anthem it is! The pulsating combination of percussion and strings, that lend the song a very world music-y feel, perfectly complement Gulzar’s fiery words that Mahadevan, and the chorus (love the aho-s!), sing with a matching zeal. A second ode to the protagonist happens in Flicker Singh, one that is more a sporting ode in that it is replete with idioms from the sport. SEL’s arrangement is a trippy mix of Punjabi and electronic elements (loved the “flickering” effect that accompanies the title phrase every time in the song!), and the singing by Hemant Brijwasi (good to hear the singer in movies after so long), Sahil Akhtar and Shehnaz Akhtar exuberant. Finally, there is the dance number Good Man Di Laltain (the phrase apparently refers to a great guy – interestingly Gulzar employed the phrase not so long back in the 2017 Rangoon song Bloody Hell). Given that there was a mental comparison happening with the sports film SEL scored for before this, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, I expected this song to be something along the lines of Slow Motion Angreza. It turned out to be a much more commonplace Punjabi-flavoured party track, however. Great singing by Sukhwinder Singh and Sunidhi Chauhan, unsurprisingly, but nothing memorable otherwise.

I have always maintained that Shaad Ali – and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, for that matter – should never stop making films for the sake of the music in their films, particularly the ones involving Shankar Ehsaan Loy and Gulzar. Soorma isn’t the best soundtrack to have come out of the Shaad Ali-SEL-Gulzar team, but it still is very much a classy soundtrack.

Music Aloud Rating: 3.5/5

Top Recos: Ishq Di Baajiaayan, Soorma Anthem, Flicker Singh

This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.

Songs and credits at the end.

Lyrics for dubbed songs can often be tricky – followers of A R Rahman’s music are most likely to resonate with this sentiment; I have seen so many instances of people going back to a song in a language they don’t understand, in lieu of a dubbed version of the song in their own language. I imagine a similar situation arising with Pehli Baar, the Dhadak equivalent of Yad Lagla. It is not that Amitabh Bhattacharya’s lines are terrible, but they still make for an awkward fit in a song where composers Ajay Atul retain everything else from the original version, down to the humming cameo by Shreya Ghoshal. The lyrical fit is not much of an issue with the other reused piece of the album, the boisterous dance track that turned out to be the biggest hit from Sairat – Zingaat (the punchy title phrase is retained). Once again, everything except Bhattacharya’s lines remains the same – composers handle the vocals as effectively as they did in Marathi. I have never been a huge fan of the track (and I know I am part of a very small minority) owing to its tempo though, and my feelings are largely the same for the Hindi Zingaat too.

It is composer Ajay Gogavale’s seeming insistence at featuring his voice in every song of the soundtrack that presents a minor blip in the otherwise well-orchestrated Vaara Re. The singing is quite good, to be fair to Gogavale, but it might have sounded better in some other voice. Some really nice touches by the composers in the backdrop – like the sitar phrases that open and close the song, and the flute and chorus that appear in the more tender moments – contribute majorly to the song’s charm. Though I did not appreciate it as much when it came out, the song I am now absolutely addicted to is the movie’s title song. As is the case with most of Ajay Atul’s best tracks, this one is too is laid over a stunning fabric of orchestral strings – especially love the fact that the song is almost entirely devoid of any percussion, accentuating the prominence of violins. Gogavale and Shreya Ghoshal’s delivery of the haunting melody is equally spectacular.

Dhadak. Ajay Atul’s work rates a tad lower than their own music for the Marathi original, but this still rates as a pretty solid effort in itself.

Music Aloud Rating: 3.5/5

Top Recos: Dhadak, Vaara Re, Zingaat

Songs and credits at the end.

This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.

After having composed arguably the best song for Akarsh Khurana’s last venture earlier this year (Prabhu Ji – High Jack), composer Anurag Saikia’s services are employed by the director once again for three songs in Karwaan. In Chhota Sa Fasana, with the help of the director’s own pensive lyrics, Saikia produces a perfect theme for the road trip that the movie appears to be revolving around. The tune or the treatment are not fresh (even the presence of Arijit Singh behind the mic adds to the déjà vu), but together they do impart a very likeable breeziness. Where Anurag Saikia delivers a proper winner is in his other song though. Heartquake (in its original version) is a beautifully crafted ditty that Papon delivers in style. While the tune itself is incredibly likeable, the light-heartedness is accentuated by Khurana’s shaayari-jo-zyaada-deep-nahi, replete with quirky rhymes. Love the way the guitar-dominated backdrop makes way for a folksy instrumental segment led by harmonium/accordion, tabla and sarangi/esraj (all of which keep appearing in the backdrop through the song) in the interlude. Composer gives the lyrics a totally new, and very electronic, treatment in the alternate version of the song titled Aftershocks, that also features another of the movie’s composers Slowcheeta on rap. Though I would rate the original version higher, this is still a highly imaginative repackaging of the song by Saikia (possibly just me, but enjoyed the way quake is split to ku-ek).

Slowcheeta teams up with Shwetang Shankar (as he did in High Jack) to produce Dhai Kilo Bakwaas. Lot of catchy, wacky elements in the song, but nothing really sticks in your head at the end of it – also not helping is the failed attempt at the Malayalam accented English rapping in between. Two more of the album’s songs go to the man who always manages to evoke a sense of nostalgia with his voice, melodies and words (though in a slowly but increasingly repetitive fashion) – Prateek Kuhad. Kadam is everything you associate with Kuhad’s trademark style – the gentle guitars, the soothing voice all putting you into a pleasant lull. Saansein on the other hand has a relatively richer arrangement – piano being the mainstay of the arrangement – and is more road trip-y in its disposition. I prefer the former among the two tracks – I find the melodic progression more interesting there. Bhar De Hamaara Glass comes from Imaad Shah, with Saba Azad behind the mic – surprisingly not under the banner of their collective act Madboy/Mink. A bit laidback and immersive in comparison with the duo’s usual songs, but the packaging otherwise is a similar mix of retro jazziness with contemporary electronic elements – and the end result too is immensely engaging (the melody reminds me of Ajeeb Daastaan Hai Yeh at times).

There is a case to be made that multi-composer soundtracks turn out best when the musicians involved are from the indie scene. To quote some top examples, we have had Detective Byomkesh Bakshy in Hindi in 2015, Solo and Humans of Someone in Tamil and Malayalam last year. Director Akarsh Khurana himself provided an earlier instance with the underrated High Jack earlier this year, and now he returns with an even better collection in Karwaan!

Music Aloud Rating: 3.5/5

Top Recos: Heartquake, Bhar De Hamaara Glass, Kadam

Musician Credits

1. Song : Chota Sa Fasana
Singer : Arijit Singh
Music : Anurag Saikia
Lyrics : Akarsh Khurana
Arrangers &Programmers : Anurag Saikia, Ishan Das

2.Song : Saansein
Singer : Prateek Kuhad
Music : Prateek Kuhad
Lyrics : Prateek Kuhad
Arrangers &Programmers : Prateek Kuhad

3.Song : Heartquake
Singer : Papon
Music : Anurag Saikia
Lyrics : Akarsh Khurana
Arrangers &Programmers : Anurag Saikia, Ishan Das

4. Song : Dhaai Kilo Bakwaas
Singer : SlowCheeta with Anish John, Sanjeevkumar Nair, and Shwetang Shankar
Music : SlowCheeta and Shwetang Shankar
Lyrics : SlowCheeta
Arrangers &Programmers : Shwetang Shankar

5. Song : Kadam
Singer :Prateek Kuhad
Music :Prateek Kuhad
Lyrics :Prateek Kuhad
Arrangers &Programmers : Prateek Kuhad

6. Song : Bhar De Hamaara Glass
Singer : Saba Azad
Music : Imaad Shah
Lyrics : Imaad Shah
Arrangers &Programmers : Imaad Shah

7. Song: Heartquake (Aftershocks)
Singer: Papon featuring SlowCheeta
Music: Anurag Saikia
Lyrics: Akarsh Khurana and SlowCheeta
Arrangers & Programmers: Anurag Saikia, Ishan Das, Manash Borthakur

Music Label: T-Series

Songs and partial credits at the end.

Sriram Parthasarathy’s uncharacteristically inconsistent vocals present the only hiccup in the wonderfully realised kalyaani raga based piece from composer Yuvan Shankar Raja called Vaanthooral. The composer’s construction of the melody and soothing arrangement more than make up for the above-mentioned shortcoming – besides, this isn’t a patch on the vocal damage that some of Yuvan’s other songs have faced in the recent few years. Vijay Yesudas, on the other hand, sounds his finest singing Dhooramai, a beautifully intimate melody that reminds one of nature the way another recent song, Aaraaro from the Malayalam movie Koode did. Equally effective in conveying the feel are Vairamuthu’s words. Continuing on the nature trail, but with a more pronounced highland-ish feel is Anbe Anbin where the composer draws on Celtic folk elements to fabulous results. While Karthik’s singing is spot on as usual, this song sees Yuvan at his imaginative best. He goes for a different melody in the second and third verse (the piece interestingly ends with the third verse, instead of coming back to the opening verse as songs usually do) – and while the vocal portions of the song are set to a plucked string refrain (banjo, I think), claps and accordion, the man introduces layers of tin whistles in the interludes, first time with a lovely bass line, and the second time with violins; the effect is spectacular in both cases. This song is not leaving my playlist for a long time! From Celtic folk, the soundtrack moves to local folk in the final track Setthu Pocchu Manasu. A simple, eminently hummable melody delivered well by Madhu Iyer, backdrop that is a charming melange of guitars, veena, kanjira and ghatam and that atmospheric feel that pervades the album – another solid winner to close the album.

Peranbu. Yuvan Shankar Raja delivers another brilliant soundtrack for director Ram, easily the composer’s best in a long time.

Music Aloud Rating: 4/5

Top Recos: All of them! (but start with Anbe Anbin)

Musician Credits

Song-1 : Dhooramaai
Album : Peranbu
Singer : Vijay Yesudas
Music : Yuvan Shankar Raja
Lyricist : Vairamuthu

Song-2 : Anbe Anbin
Album : Peranbu
Singer : Karthik
Music : Yuvan Shankar Raja
Lyricist : Sumathi Ram

Song-3 : Vaanthooral
Album : Peranbu
Singer : Sriram Parthasarathy
Music : Yuvan Shankar Raja
Lyricist : Vairamuthu

Song-4 : Setthu Pocchu Manasu
Album : Peranbu
Singer : Madhu Iyer
Music : Yuvan Shankar Raja
Lyricist : Karunakaran

Songs and musician credits at the end.

This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.

While the central hook of guest composer Tanishk Bagchi’s solo offering shares its title with Naushad – Tanveer Naqvi – Noor Jehan’s 1946 classic, Jawaan Hai Mohabbat turns out to be an original composition, written by Irshad Kamil (who incidentally is the only lyricist for the soundtrack, though there are two composers). A decent song, that is more Sunidhi Chauhan’s show than the composer’s. While Bagchi gets an original song to do, it is lead composer Amit Trivedi who is given the job of recreating an old piece. The song is Yeh Jo Halka Halka, the Nusrat song that has once already been “adapted” into Bollywood, as Chale Jaise Hawaayein. The tune aside of the original title refrain remains Trivedi’s own, to his credit, but coming from a man who has done a couple of pretty imaginative adaptations in the past, this one comes across as pretty ordinary. Once again it is the singing (Sunidhi Chauhan and Divya Kumar) that props up the song at least marginally.

Tere Jaisa Tu Hai is the only song in the soundtrack that features Kishore Sodha’s trumpet, something that I was hoping to hear a lot of throughout the album, given the promos prominently depicted Anil Kapoor as being a trumpeter. And it is indeed Sodha’s work that is the highlight of the inspirational piece, particularly ruling the soaring segments. The rock-infused song otherwise reminds of Trivedi’s older songs of the kind, but passes muster owing largely to the earlier-mentioned aspect. Monali Thakur manages to stand her ground negotiating the high notes the song touches at multiple points. Thakur sounds much more in her elements singing the chirpy folk song Fu Bai Fu that is built around movie song and quote references (Kamil slyly references one of his own with Heer Hui Sad Usey Lag Gayi Loo). I assume the Fu Bai Fu refrain comes from a folk piece (the tune reminds me of the chorus bit from Hum Ko Aaj Kal Hai). Amit Trivedi himself gets behind the mic for Achche Din, a song that once again is awash with déjà vu inducing elements, but has a tenderness that appeals. And the song’s arrangement has one key redeeming aspect in the form of Inapakurti D Rao’s clarinet that beautifully shadows the singing almost throughout the song.

In terms of quantity, 2018 is the busiest year that Amit Trivedi has ever had. However, in terms of musical quality, the man is going through not so achche din right now. I really hope he gets out of this slump soon.

Music Aloud Rating: 2.5/5

Top Recos: Tere Jaisa Tu Hai, Achche Din, Jawaan Hai Mohabbat

Musician Credits

Music by: Amit Trivedi, Tanishk Bagchi

Lyrics: Irshad Kamil

Singers:

Mohabbat: Sunidhi Chauhan

Fu Bai Fu: Monali Thakur

Tere Jaisa: Monali Thakur

Achche Din: Amit Trivedi

Halka Halka: Sunidhi Chauhan, Divya Kumar

Musicians:

Programmed by: Amit Trivedi, Gourab Dutta, Vineeth Jayan, Saurabh Lokhande

Drums: Jai Row Kavi

Percussion: Sanket Naik

Bass guitar: Ardeshir Mistry

Guitar: Warren Mendonsa

Mandolin, Saz, Bouzouki: Tapas Roy

Trumpet: Kishore Sodha

Clarinet & Flute: Inapakurti D Rao

Backing vocals: Manas Madhav Bhagwat , Oushnik Majumdar, Meghna Mishra & Saloni Desai

Crew:

Produced and Arranged By: Amit Trivedi

Recording Studio: A T Stuios and YRF Studios – Mumbai

Recording Engineers A T Studios: Abhishek Sortey & Urmila Sutar assisted by Firoz Shaikh

Recording Engineers YRF Studios: Shantanu Hudlikar assisted by Manasi Tare

Mixed and Mastered by: Shadab Rayeen, A T Studios & New Edge – Mumbai assisted by Abhishek Sortey & Dhananjay Khapekar

Executive Producer A T Studios: Krutee Trivedi

Head of Production A T Studios: Aashish Narula

Songs and musician credits at the end.

This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.

While the trailer of Mulk was a sombre one with just fleeting shots of happy moments, the ratio is sort of reversed when it comes to the music – two of the three songs in the short soundtrack are upbeat ones. The one melancholic track, Khudara, comes from Prasad Sashte, long time music producer and, I believe, debuting in Bollywood as composer. A song that, on some level, takes me back to Bhare Naina from one of director Anubhav Sinha’s past movies, Ra.One, and is rendered by Vishal Dadlani who incidentally co-composed the Ra.One track. Really well done piece though, where Sashte splendidly exploits Dadlani’s vocal skills both in terms of scale and nuances. Composer delivers equally well in his other song, the playful celebratory song Thenge Se where he and lyricist Shakeel Azmi (who writes all three songs) cleverly incorporate references to O P Nayyar-S H Bihari’s Kajra Mohabbat Wala. While Sunidhi Chauhan and Swanand Kirkire handle the song in the perfect spirit with Suvarna Tiwari’s backing, Sashte’s arrangement sees lovely use of Amit Padhye’s harmonium and Tapas Roy’s mandolin. The last song comes from Anurag Saikia, featuring in a third multi-composer soundtrack this year (it is nice to see that in three soundtracks, the man has managed to handle enough variety that he could form a stand-alone soundtrack just with his songs!), and here it is a qawwali titled Piya Samaye. The arrangement is understandably standard here for most part. But the composer has a pretty engaging – if mildly familiar – melody as well in place, and gets a competent set of singers to deliver it with finesse – Shafqat Amanat Ali (whom I really miss in Hindi these days – the last time I remember hearing him is in Firangi last year), Arshad Hussain and his team.

Given that it comes from a bunch of low profile names, Mulk’s soundtrack definitely exceeds expectations. And I really hope Anurag Saikia gets his own soundtrack at some point soon.

Music Aloud Rating: 3/5

Musician Credits

Song – Thenge Se
Singers – Sunidhi Chauhan, Swanand Kirkire & Suvarna Tiwari
Composer – Prasad Sashte
Lyrics – Shakeel Azmi
Music Production & Arranged – Prasad Sashte
Harmonium – Amit Padhye
Strokes Instruments – Tapas
Dholak – Shadab Mohammad
Recording Studio – Neo Sound & Studio Cave
Neo Recording Engineer – Pankaj Borah, Pranjal & Prasad Sashte
Mixed & Mastered – Shadab Rayeen
Sound Engineer Assistant – Abhishek Sortey
Music Co-Ordinator – Piyush Seth

Song – Khudara
Singer – Vishal Dadlani
Composer – Prasad Sashte
Lyrics – Shakeel Azmi
Music Production & Arranged – Prasad Sashte & Mithun Mohan
Guitars – Dabbu, Mithun Mohan & Raghav Chaitanya
Backing Vocals Chants & Aalap – Mithun Mohan, Ashwin, Anirudh, Himanshu, Tushar & Prasad
Recording Studio – Neo Sound & Studio Cave
Neo Recording Engineer – Pankaj Borah, Pranjal & Prasad Sashte
Mixed & Mastered – Shadab Rayeen
Music Co-Ordinator – Piyush Seth

Song – Piya Samaye
Original Song – Anurag Saikia
Singers – Shafqat Amanat Ali & Arshad Hussain
Composer, Production, Arranged & Orchestrated – Anurag Saikia
Lyrics – Shakeel Azmi
Additional Production – Ishan Das
Sound Designer – Bhaskar Sarma
Qawali Group – Arshad Hussain & Team
Additional Vocals – Shikhar Kumar & Digvijay Singh Pariyar
Backing Vocals – Dikshu Sarma & Arabinda Neog
Guitar – Ishan Das
Bass – Abhinav Bora
Tabla – Sanjeev Sen, Yusuf Ghulam Mohammad & Fazal Abdulla Azab
Dholak – Iqbal Azad, Raju Sardar & Fazal Abdulla Azab
Strokes – Tapas Roy
Harmonium – Firoz Shah
Strings Conducted – Jitendra Javda
Assistant To Anurag – Arabinda Neog & Dipakshi Kalita
Studio – Euphony Studios
Recording Engineer – Partha Das
Studio – Enzy Studio
Recording Engineer – Julian
Studio – AMV Studio
Recording Engineer – Rahul M Sarma

Songs and musician credits at the end (thanks to @_saabu for helping with the credits).

In its whimsical nature, Bum Bum Bum takes me back to Pritam’s Barfi – the elements making up the soundscape seem to be largely the same; be it the plucked strings, the keys or the wonderful choral harmonies, and the end result too is as delightful. Naresh Iyer leads the proceedings here, delivering Manu Manjith’s love-struck lines with finesse. Going back to the subject of harmonies, the use of chorus is one of the hallmarks of composer Dawn Vincent’s music for Iblis, being featured prominently in all four songs (it is interesting to note that the songs are all named after refrains sung by the chorus, rather than the lead singer bits). The whimsy extends to Mama Sa Bibo as well where the composer employs harmonies fabulously! The song itself goes through some thoroughly entertaining twists and turns over its course – particularly loved the second interlude and the third verse that follows. It is perhaps the combination of the acapella-esque vocal arrangement and the devotional references that makes me think of the brilliant Aathmaavin from Amen when I listen to this one. Bamba Bamba has a strings refrain joining the fray, and in combination with the guitars, claps, keys and the chorus, they form quite a formidable backdrop to Ashok T Ponnappan’s soothing rendition. Finally, the drinking song Oronnaayi Onnonnaayi comes across sounding like a traditional piece – Vincent keeps the proceedings simple with just a basic percussion comprised of glass clinks and desk-bangings, letting Shahi A J’s lines take the spotlight. Nicely executed piece, this too.

Iblis. Dawn Vincent had shown promise in his composing debut last year, with one half of Adventures of Omanakkuttan. This time he gets the full soundtrack with the same director-actor team, and the man totally delivers on that promise.

Music Aloud Rating: 3.5/5

Musician Credits

1. Mama Sa Bibo

Chorus: Anoop. G Krishnan, Ramesh Murali, Gagul Joseph, Seby

Lyrics: Manu Manjith

2. Alba Iblis

Singer: Naresh Iyer

Lyrics: Manu Manjith

3. Bamba Bamba

Singer: Ashok T Ponnappan

Chorus: Anoop. G Krishnan, Ramesh Murali, Gagul Joseph, Seby

Lyrics: Manu Manjith

4. Oronnay Onnonnay

Chorus: Anoop. G Krishnan, Ramesh Murali, Gagul Joseph, Seby

Lyircs: Shahi A J

Studios

Nikhil @ Freddy’s AVG, Cochin

Nishanth @ NHQ, Cochin

Lijesh @ Voice and Vision Studio’s, Chennai

Collective Studios, Cochin

D’s Den, Cochin

Guitars/Bass:    Sumesh Parameswar

Violins/Violas/Cellos:   Herald Antony, Carol George

Music Editor:   Ashok T Ponnappan

Music Recording Supervision

Kiran Lal, Ashok T Ponnappan, Subramanian K V

All Songs Mixed and Mastered by

Kiran Lal @ Noise Head Quarters, Panampilly Nagar

All Songs Composed and Arranged by

Dawn Vincent

Songs and musician credits at the end.

Guest composer (and lyricist) Arko seems to channel the sound that used to be Pritam’s signature for romantic songs once upon a time. Phrases like nainon ne baandhi kaisi dor and kheencha chala jaaye teri ore in fact took me back to a specific song of Pritam – Teri Ore (the similarity in the instrumental prelude as well makes me wonder if this is more than just a coincidence). Coming back to the song, the throwback aspect does not help the song a lot, given that Pritam himself had milked that template dry. Nevertheless, a passable listen, helped on its way by Yasser Desai’s soulful rendition. Desai also features in the song from the other guest composer – Tanishk Bagchi – alongside Monali Thakur, Shashaa Tirupati and Farhan Bhiwandiwala. Coming close on the heels of Bagchi’s original song in Fanney Khan, the man gets another original work here. And paired with his trusted lyrical partner VAYU, Bagchi produces an incredibly swingy retro jazz piece (incidentally the only song that has a retro feel to it) called Monobina, that the singers deliver to perfection. VAYU’s words range from English to Hindi to Bengali, and I love the fact that the Bengali verse is given to Monali Thakur; there is something thoroughly endearing about Thakur singing Bengali.

The movie’s lead composers Sachin Jigar compose the remaining five songs – three of which have live percussion headed by veterans; one by Taufiq Qureshi and two by Ranjit Barot. Despite the presence of Qureshi (and his son, Shikhar Naad Qureshi, among the team – I like his name!) though, the drinking song Chad Gayi Hai does not come off as anything special, percussion-wise or otherwise. It is just a regular Punjabi flavoured boisterous song that engages while it lasts. Barot’s presence (along with Dipesh Varma), on the other hand, does make a big difference in the inspirational Ghar Layenge Gold and Khel Khel Mein, both written by veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar. The heavy percussion and the chorus (Rakesh Maini, Madhav Krishna) echoing the title phrase give Ghar Layenge Gold the anthemic high, even as lead vocalist Daler Mehndi’s sounds oddly processed and awkward in places. Khel Khel Mein has KK leading the proceedings in style, though the melody progresses on predictable lines. The frenetic beats manage to prop the song up to an extent, though. With Rasta Rasta Sachin Jigar go back to Punjabi folk (and the tune occasionally reminds me of Chadh Gayi, possibly for that same reason). Nice, but very repetitive tune that rides on veteran singer Sukhwinder Singh’s energy for large part. Good percussions once again (nobody credited for it though). Composers deliver their best in the patriotic Jaaga Hindustan where they feature mohan veena maestro Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, and his beautiful solos echoing across the sprawling soundscape is the highlight of the song. Divya Kumar handles the lead vocals, and does his job well. Interestingly, there are times when the song takes me back to Maa Tujhe Salaam, especially when the mridangam appears in the second verse.

Sachin Jigar get five songs in the seven song soundtrack, but it is Tanishk Bagchi who takes home the gold with his one song.

Music Aloud Rating: 3/5

Top Recos: Monobina, Jaaga Hindustan, Chadh Gayi Hai

This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.

Musician Credits

Song – Naino Ne Baandhi
Vocals – Yasser Desai
Music and Lyrics – Arko
Programming & Arrangement – Aditya Dev
Guitars (Acoustic, Electric, Nylon) – Krishna Pradhan
Recorded at AMV studios by Rahul Sharma
Mix – Aditya Dev
Master – Eric Pillai
Choreographer – Rekha Chinni Prakash
DOP – Álvaro Gutiérrez AEC

Song – Chad Gayi Hai
Music Composer – Sachin – Jigar
Vocals – Vishal Dadlani & Sachin – Jigar
Lyrics – VAYU
Programming & Arrangement – Sachin – Jigar
Additional Programming – Hrishikesh Gangan
Live Rhythms & Percussions Arranged & Conducted by Taufiq Qureshi
Woodwinds by Naveen Kumar
Percussions performed by Taufiq Qureshi, Dipesh Varma, Shikhar Naad Qureshi & Satyajit Jamsandekar
Music Production Head – Romil Ved
Recording Engineers – Julian Mascarenhas
Recorded @ Enzy Studios
Mix & Mastered By Eric Pillai @ Future Sound Of Bombay
Assistant Mix & Master – Michael Edwin Pillai
Choreographer – Bosco – Caesar
DOP – Jay Oza

Song – Ghar Layenge Gold
Music Composer – Sachin – Jigar
Vocals – Daler Mehndi & Sachin – Jigar
Backing Vocals – Rakesh Maini & Madhav Krishna
Lyrics – Javed Akhtar
Programmed & Arranged by Ranjit Barot
Live Rhythms & Percussions performed by Dipesh Verma & Ranjit Barot
Recording Studio – Yashraj Studios, DM Folk Studio
Recording Engineer – Shantanu Hudlikar, Abhishek Khandelwal & Aakash Jaitly
Assistant Recording Engineer – Mansi Tare
Music Production Head – Romil Ved
Assistant to Sachin -Jigar – Hrishikesh Gangan
Mix & Master – Eric Pillai @ Future Sound Of Bombay
Assistant Mix & Master Engineer – Michael Edwin Pillai
DOP – Álvaro Gutiérrez AEC

Song – Monobina
Music Composer – Tanishk Bagchi
Vocals – Yasser Desai, Shashaa Tirupati, Monali Thakur & Farhad Bhiwandiwala
Lyrics – VAYU
Programming & Arrangement – Tanishk Bagchi
Live Sound and Rhythm arrangement by Krishna Kishore
Mix & Mastered By Eric Pillai @ Future Sound Of Bombay
Choreographer – Bosco – Caesar
DOP – Álvaro Gutiérrez AEC

Song – Khel Khel Mein
Music Composer – Sachin – Jigar
Vocals – KK & Sachin – Jigar
Lyrics – Javed Akhtar
Programmed & Arranged by Ranjit Barot
Live Rhythms & Percussions performed by Dipesh Verma & Ranjit Barot
Recording Studio – Yashraj Studios
Recording Engineer – Shantanu Hudlikar, Abhishek Khandelwal
Assistant Recording Engineer – Mansi Tare
Music Production Head – Romil Ved
Assistant to Sachin -Jigar – Hrishikesh Gangan
Mix & Master – Eric Pillai @ Future Sound Of Bombay
Assistant Mix & Master Engineer – Michael Edwin Pillai
DOP – Álvaro Gutiérrez AEC

Song – Rasta Rasta
Music Composer – Sachin – Jigar
Vocals – Sukhwinder Singh & Sachin – Jigar
Lyrics – Javed Akhtar
Programmed & Arranged by Sachin – Jigar
Live Stroke Instruments – Tapas Roy
Guitars – Krishna Pradhan
Recording Studio – Enzy Studio
Recording Engineer – Juilian Mascarenhas
Music Production Head – Romil Ved
Assistant to Sachin -Jigar – Hrishikesh Gangan
Mix & Master – Eric Pillai @ Future Sound Of Bombay
Assistant Mix & Master Engineer – Michael Edwin Pillai
DOP – Álvaro Gutiérrez AEC

Song – Jaaga Hindustan
Music Composer – Sachin – Jigar
Vocals – Divya Kumar & Sachin – Jigar
Lyrics – Javed Akhtar
Arranged by Sachin – Jigar
Programming – Hyacinth Dsouza
Live Slide Guitars – Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt
Recording Studio – Enzy Studio
Recording Engineer – Juilian Mascarenhas
Music Production Head – Romil Ved
Assistant to Sachin -Jigar – Hrishikesh Gangan
Mix & Master – Eric Pillai @ Future Sound Of Bombay
Assistant Mix & Master Engineer – Michael Edwin Pillai
DOP – Álvaro Gutiérrez AEC

Songs and credits at the end.

This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.

Owing to the movie’s setting, Happy Bhag Jayegi had a predominantly Punjabi flavoured soundtrack, with the occasional melodic piece digressing from the theme. In Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi, the makers seem to have dialled up the Punjabi quotient, insomuch that even the old Bollywood song recreation (well of course it has one, it is 2018 Bollywood!) – O P Nayyar – Qamar Jalalabadi – Geeta Dutt’s 1958 classic Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu, is a Punjabicised one. While a musical representation of the Chinese-meets-Punjabi theme is a smart idea, the adaptation itself is forgettable. Handling the vocals here are the movie’s lead cast members Sonakshi Sinha and Jassie Gill. Swag Saha Nahi Jaaye too traces its origin to a Punjabi folk song (Sarke Sarke Jandiye) though the Swag Saha Nahi Jaaye line is quite likely a nod to Roop Saha Nahi Jaaye from O P Nayyar-Sahir Ludhianvi’s Naya Daur song Reshmi Salwar, based on the same tune (thanks to Rujul and Nilesh for these trivia). Entertaining song, despite the familiarity, largely courtesy the singing by Shadab Faridi and Neha Bhasin.

The title song is where the composer makes a link to the first movie, reusing an instrumental motif from Happy Oye. The song isn’t half as engaging as the latter though, despite Daler Mehndi and Harshdeep Kaur doing vocal honours (am I the only one who felt fleeting references to Dada Burman’s Hothon Pe Aisi Baat in the percussion during the interludes?!). It is in the two completely new tracks that Sohail Sen produces his best work for the soundtrack. While Kudiye Ni Tere once again has Punjabi-infused lines, the tune and arrangement take a different route to produce refreshing results. The only drawback is Udit Narayan leading the vocals – while I do truly miss his voice these days, he sounds almost weary at times here. Shivangi Bhayana does well though, chipping in occasionally. Koi Gal Nai is where everything comes together just fine – the composer’s groovy electronic packaging of a folksy tune (sort of takes me back to Amit T’s spectacular Motorwaada, this one) works splendidly. While Shahid Mallya and Piyush Mishra (also acting in the film) deliver the melody, with a fine chorus to boot, lyricist Mudassar Aziz does an interesting cameo as rapper in the second half.

As evidenced by the last two songs, composer Sohail Sen clearly does still have good music to offer, but his work in Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi would in its entirety rate lower than its predecessor.

Music Aloud Rating: 2.5/5

Top Recos: Koi Gal Nai, Swag Saha Nahi Jaaye, Kudiye Ni Tere

Musician credits

1) Swag Saha Nahi Jaye
Singers: Sohail Sen, Shadab Faridi & Neha Bhasin
Backing Vocals: Shivangi Bhayana
Music: Sohail Sen
Lyrics: Mudassar Aziz
Programming By: Sohail Sen, DJ Phukan & Aditya Dev
Tablas: Sanjeev Sen
Dholaks: Raju Sardar, Yusuf, Hafiz Khan
Dhols: Anil Solanki & Deepak Solanki
Percussion: Pratap
Recorded At: Empire studio by Mani
Mixed & Mastered By: Eric Pillai @ future song of Bombay
Assistant Mix & Master: Michael Edwin Pillai
Music Coordinator: Ramanand Shetty

2) Kudiye Ni Tere
Singers: Udit Narayan & Shivangi Bhayana
Music: Sohail Sen
Lyrics: Mudassar Aziz
Programming By: Sohail Sen & Nishad Bhatt
Live Rhythm Arrangement: Sameer Sen
Tablas: Sanjeev Sen
Dholaks: Raju Sardar, Yusuf, Hafiz Khan
Percussion: Pratap
Mandolin: Chandrakant Lakshpati
Guitars: Abhilash Phukan
Recorded At: Empire Studio by Mani
Mixed & Mastered By: Eric Pillai @ future song of Bombay
Assitant Mix & Master: Michael Edwin Pillai
Music Coodinator: Ramanand Shety

3) Koi Gal Nai
Singers: Singers: Shahid Mallaya & Piyush Mishra
Rap: Mudassar Aziz
Music: Sohail Sen
Lyrics: Mudassar Aziz
Programming By: Sohail Sen, Aditya Dev, Nishad Bhatt
Guitars: Abhilash Phukan
Recorded At: Empire Studio by Mani
Mixed & Mastered By: Eric Pillai @ future song of Bombay
Assistant Mix & Master: Michael Edwin Pillai
Music Coordinator: Ramanand Shetty

4) Happy Bhag Jayegi (Title Song)
Singers: Daler Mehndi & Harshdeep Kaur
Backing vocals: Suvarna Tiwari
Music: Sohail Sen
Lyrics: Mudassar Aziz
Programming By: Sohail Sen
Live Rhythm Arrangement: Sameer Sen
Tablas: Sanjeev Sen
Mouth Percussion: Sohail Sen
Dhol: Iqbal and Iqbal
Guitars: Abhilash Phukan
Percussion: Pratap
Recorded At: Empire studio by Mani
Mixed & Mastered By: Eric Pillai & fuure song of Bombay
Assistant Mix & Master: Micheal Edwin Pillai
Music Coordinator: Ramanand Shetty

5) Chin Chin Chu
Music: Sohail Sen
Lyrics: Mudassar Aziz
Singers: Jassie Gill and Sonakshi Sinha
Rap: Mudassar Aziz
Programming By: Sohail Sen and Nishad Bhatt
Tablas: Sanjeev Sen
Dhols: Iqbal and Iqbal
Recorded At: YRF studio by Shantanu Hudlikar
Mandolin: Chandrakant Lakshpati
Guitars: Abhilasha Phukan
Percussion: Pratap Mixed and Mastered By Eric Pillai @ Future Song of Bombay
Assistant Mix and Master By: Michael Edwin Pillai
Music Co-ordinator: Ramanand Shetty

Original Song Credits:
Singer: Geeta Dutt
Music Director: O.P Nayyar
Lyricist: Qamar Jalalabadi
Movie: Howrah Bridge

Songs and musician credits at the end.

This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.

Some of the best songs from the Sachin Jigar-Raj DK team have been of the quirky kind, topped of course by Go Goa Gone in 2013. In Stree too, owing to the movie’s genre, there is a quirky vein running through the whole of the soundtrack. And they find a perfect lyrical partner in VAYU for the same, given that the man has aced the genre on multiple occasions in the past. The combined wackiness comes out best in Milegi Milegi, a song that is supremely engaging despite evoking memories of Pritam’s 2012 hit Pungi, and not just for the fact that Mika Singh leads the vocals in both cases. The déjà vu aspect has a more telling effect in the second song Kamariya that reminds of different songs at different points. Catchy song with some nice touches from the composer, that said. Sachin Jigar and Vayu deliver their best in their third and last song for the album, the romantic Nazar Na Lag Jaye. While the song itself is presented as a gentle, soulful piece (Ash King’s fine rendition and Kalyan Baruah and Shomu Seal’s plucked strings key factors in conveying the same), VAYU’s lines once again combine Hindi, Punjabi and English in a playful fashion often, and that accentuates the song’s charm with its contrast. After making its transition from a movie dialogue to a popular meme, Aao Kabhi Haveli Pe comes back to film world as a song in Stree, composers collaborating with Badshah for the last track of the album. While on the one side the song’s lyrics (co-written by Badshah and Jigar Saraiya) seemingly reference old songs with Bareilly wala jhumka, aa gaya.. dekho wo aa gaya etc., on the other end are attempts to rhyme “lit AF” with “ASAP”. Wacky, sure, but there is only so far wacky can take you at times. Nikhita Gandhi’s singing is good, that said.

Stree. Another entertaining soundtrack from Sachin Jigar and VAYU for Raj-DK, whose main drawback is the familiarity.

Music Aloud Rating: 2.5/5

Top Recos: Nazar Na Lag Jaye, Milegi Milegi, Kamariya

Musician Credits

1. Song – Milegi Milegi
Singers – Mika Singh & Sachin-Jigar
Music – Sachin-Jigar
Lyrics – VAYU
Arranged & Programmed – Sachin-Jigar
Music Production Head – Romil Ved
Assistant To Sachin-Jigar – Hrishikesh Gangan
Mix & Mastered By Eric Pillai @ Future Sound Of Bombay
Assistant Mix Engineer – Michael Edwin Pillai

2. Song Name – Kamariya
Singer- Aastha Gill, Sachin Sanghvi , Jigar Saraiya , Divya Kumar
Composer – Sachin- Jigar
Lyrics – VAYU
Arranged & Programmed – Sachin- Jigar
Music Production Head – Romil Ved
Assistant To Sachin – Jigar – Hrishikesh Gangan.
Mix & Mastered By – Eric Pillai @ Future Sound Of Bombay
Assistant Mix Engineer – Michael Edwin Pillai

3. Song – Nazar Na Lag Jaaye
Singers- Ash King & Sachin-Jigar
Composer – Sachin-Jigar
Lyrics – VAYU
Arranged & Programmed – Sachin-Jigar
Music Production Head – Romil Ved
Assistant To Sachin – Jigar – Hrishikesh Gangan.
Mix & Mastered By Eric Pillai @ Future Sound Of Bombay
Assistant Mix Engineer – Michael Edwin Pillai
Live Instruments-
Guitars – Kalyan Baruah
Strokes – Shomu Seal
Flutes – Tejas Vinchurkar

4. Song – Aao Kabhi Haveli Pe
Singers- Badshah , Nikita Gandhi , Sachin – Jigar
Composer – Sachin – Jigar
Lyrics – Badshah , Jigar Saraiya
Arranged & Programmed – Sachin- Jigar
Music Production Head – Romil Ved
Assistant To: Sachin – Jigar – Hrishikesh Gangan.
Mix & Mastered By Eric Pillai @ Future Sound Of Bombay
Assistant Mix Engineer – Michael Edwin Pillai

Songs and musician credits at the end.

While the fact that Kaathale Kaathalae ends almost immediately as the title phrase begins still annoys me, there is no denying the incredible charm of the prelude that composer Govind Vasantha builds atop the minute-long piece that first appeared in the teaser of ‘96. The quiet, freeform-ish rendition by Chinmayi Sripaada (the voice of Trisha in this movie both musically and otherwise, apparently), Govind’s heart-tugging violin solo, Kiran’s flute and the assorted sounds of nature, all coming together to take you through something of a musical equivalent of an early morning walk. Version 2 has the composer replacing Chinmayi with Kalyani Menon for the initial poetry by Karthik Netha – and this is probably the only move that doesn’t quite hit the mark in the entire album – the singer comes across sounding a bit weary. The same words make yet another appearance in between Anthaathi, enabling a cameo from the wonderful Bhadra Rajin. The album’s longest song (Anthaathi lasts 7:14) starts off almost like a Ludovico Einaudi song, with that haunting piano refrain, before Chinmayi and Govind step in. And the song gradually builds up intensity, first the percussion and then the rousing chorus – both a rarity in the album that is marked by the dominant quietude. But this song too goes back to quietness as Nasser’s voice echoes across with a splendid narration of a paean to love.

The breezy Life of Ram is another song that comes across as an exception from the album’s general sound – not to imply that it is any less engaging of course. Govind’s Thaikkudam Bridge compatriot Mithun Raju, and bassist Naveen (Napier, I suppose) set up a fab backdrop for Pradeep Kumar to execute a fine rendition on his part – it helps that the composition is along the lines of multiple songs that the singer has sung in Tamil for the likes of Santhosh Narayanan. Gowri TP leads the proceedings in the desolate Yaen, and the lady sings her heart out, even as Govind’s sparse orchestration accentuates the sadness (lovely use of guitar – or is it mandolin/uke?), especially the violins growing in intensity towards the end. Uma Devi takes over as lyricist for Thaabangale and Iravingu Theevai, both of which seem to be companion pieces in more ways than just the common lyricist. Both songs feature Pradeep Kumar and Chinmayi behind the mic, both doing an equally fine job. While the former has Mithun Raju’s splendid guitar solo forming the song’s interlude, in the latter it is Rajhesh Vaidya with a short but highly effective classical-flavoured (raga keeravani-ish, I think?) cameo on his veena. Finally, my most favourite song of the album (only by a small margin, I must add), the achingly beautiful Vasantha Kaalangal which is practically a duet between Mithun Raju’s flamenco-esque guitar and Chinmayi. Barring a brief digression in the second half, the mood remains largely melancholic, and it is Mithun Raju, in stellar form here, who manages to tug at your heart strings the most, with his riffs.

’96. Months after making waves with that one released song from Oru Pakka Kathai and producing a decent soundtrack in Asuravadham that largely went under the radar, Govind Vasantha (formerly Menon) finally gets his well-deserved big break in Tamil, and knocks it right out of the park! I really hope this means that Govind Vasantha’s Kaalangal are finally here (sorry, could not resist doing this ). Also, now would be a good time to go back to some of Govind’s older works if you are unfamiliar with them – particularly the theme song of 100 Days of Love, and the work he did in Humans of Someone – both of which you are bound to enjoy if you loved this soundtrack.

Music Aloud Rating: 4.5/5

Top Recos: All of them!

Musician Credits

Song: Anthaathi
Singers: Chinmayi Sripaada, Govind Vasantha, Bhadra Rajin (Carnatic portion) Chorus and M. Nassar
Lyrics: Karthik Netha

Song: The life of Ram
Singer: Pradeep Kumar
Lyrics: Karthik Netha

Song: Yean
Singer: Gowri TP
Lyrics: Karthik Netha

Song: Vasantha kaalangal
Singer: Chinmayi Sripaada
Lyrics: Uma Devi

Song: Thaabangale
Singers: Chinmayi Sripaada , Pradeep Kumar
Lyrics: Uma Devi

Song: Iravingu theevai
Singers: Chinmayi Sripaada, Pradeep Kumar
Lyrics: Uma Devi

Song: Kaathalae Kaathalae
Singers: Chinmayi Sripaada, Govind Vasantha
Lyrics: Karthik Netha

Song: Kaathalae Kaathalae
Singer: Kalyani Menon, Chinmayi Sripaada, Govind Vasantha
Lyrics: Karthik Netha

Chorus :Sowmya Mahadevan, Veena Murali, Ala B Bala, Deepthi Suresh, Vishnupriya Ravi, Shanthini, Sindhuri, Madhumitha Shankar, Santhosh Hariharan, Yogi Sekar, Aravind Srinivas D, G.Sudarshan Ajay, Jithin, Pravin, Vignesh Narayanan, Shenbagaraj.
Flute : Kiran , Veena : Rajesh Vaidya , Guitars : Mithun Raju , Bass : Naveen , Violin : Govind Vasantha , Strings : Cochin Strings Ensemble
Mixing : Amith Bal (2,4,5,6) Rajan KS (1,7,8) Govind Vasantha (3)
Mastered By Sreejesh Nair
Recorded at : 20 db studios , Seed Studios , Rajiv Menon Studio
Engineers : Avinash Satish, Lawrence , Dhileeban
All songs Composed and Produced by Govind Vasantha

Songs at the end.

This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.

Multiple songs from Laila Majnu feature Kashmiri verses, but it is Alif’s Katyu Chukh that is entirely Kashmiri. The Urdu/Kashmiri band presents their version of 18^th/19^th century poet Mahmud Gami’s poem. A rendition that stays close to the band’s past renditions of the same track (they appear to have performed it at multiple music festivals), and quite wonderfully so – lead singer Mohammad Muneem’s soaring vibrato echoing across a minimal, ambient soundscape that is bound to take your mind to Kashmiri valleys. Joi Barua, the movie’s second composer, offers three original tunes, all of them of the peppy kind, and all penned by Irshad Kamil (who pens the whole of the remaining soundtrack). The catchiest of the three is the folksy O Meri Laila, sung by Atif Aslam and Jyotica Tangri. The song’s clear highlight is the infectious title hook that cements itself in your head with its repeated appearances in vocal and instrumental forms, the latter via rabab and accordion/harmonium, both excellent choices of instruments for the kind of song it is. The shorter Radio Version of the song features a different, but equally effective arrangement – it is only Barua’s singing that isn’t quite top drawer. Dev Negi, Amit Sharma lead Gayee Kaam Se that follows a qawwali styled format until the surprise dreamy twist towards the end, sung by Meenal Jain. The melody of the qawwali part of things has something of a familiar ring to it, but the creative arrangement will still make it worth your while. Barua explores a third genre for his final song, going yesteryear disco with Lala Zula Zalio. While Frankie’s Kashmiri rendition that opens the song sits awkwardly atop the techno backdrop, rest of the song led by Sunidhi Chauhan works really well.

In comes lead composer, sitarist Niladri Kumar, with four more distinct tunes. And the man starts with a bang, producing an incredibly immersive romantic melody in the wonderfully written Aahista that is handled exceptionally well by Jonita Gandhi and Arijit Singh. The lush backdrop features some really imaginative layers from Kumar and the arrangers Agnelo Fernandes and Arjun Nair, and one of those layers is Kumar’s own electric sitar aka Zitar, something you might recognise from such songs as Alvida and In Dino from Life In a Metro (if you are not familiar with his non film works, that is). Tum is Atif Aslam’s solo act, and a brilliant one at that. The opening verse of the song bears something of a mild resemblance to Aahista, but the song proceeds along a totally different route, one as splendid as the earlier song. The resonant soundscape is once again half the song’s charm, and the phased use of percussion accentuates the effect. An alternate version (weirdly titled Male version!) has Javed Ali treating the melody to his trademark nuances, while the composer keeps everything else the same. Shreya Ghoshal sounds her most exquisite leading Sarphiri, yet another sprawling melodic piece from Kumar, but for a frenetic percussion-led digression in the second half that is delivered by Babul Supriyo. While the sarod adds a lovely touch in the song’s interlude, I wish it were a tad longer. Hafiz Hafiz starts on a misleading note, sounding a bit like an extension of Tum, before steadily picking up pace and energy. It is the children’s chorus that kicks off the vocal section with the opening verse of the oft covered Kashmiri folk Hukus Bukus, before Mohit Chauhan takes over and sings the rest of the inspirational piece in style, with the chorus in tow. The composer leverages his fusion sensibilities to make some nifty additions to the invigorating percussion-dominated orchestration, like konnakol (Carnatic percussion syllables). Kamil’s words are once again splendidly realised.

Laila Majnu. One of Bollywood’s best soundtracks yet this year, and it comes from three names rarely seen in the industry!

Music Aloud Rating: 4/5

Top Recos: Aahista, Tum, Katyu Chukh, O Meri Laila, Hafiz Hafiz

Songs and musician credits at the end.

That the music of Manmarziyaan would be a throwback to that of Udta Punjab on some level, looked a strong possibility from the movie’s trailer and the crew members involved. And the soundtrack does indeed have multiple moments when you are likely to think of some UP track, or even some other Amit Trivedi composition from the past – thankfully hardly any of it comes across in an ennui-inducing fashion like quite a few of Amit Trivedi’s songs have been sounding in recent times. A lot of it is also owing to the individual brilliance of the artists the composer picks to work with him here. Take Daryaa for instance – flautist Paras Nath bolstering the song over the familiar AT rock base to glorious effect, and is fittingly assigned the duty of closing the song with a heart-warming 30-second solo, even as Shahid Mallya and Ammy Virk’s (both in fine form) voices fade away. An unplugged version of the song (the only song with two versions in the 14-song album) accentuates the longing in the tune and Shellee’s (another of the soundtrack’s stars) lines – in fact in this form it almost feels like a throwback to the impromptu acoustic sessions during college days (am I the only one who got specifically reminded of Zeest’s legendary Sutta Na Mila?). Of course those college sessions did not feature the brilliant guitar improvisations of the kind Sanjoy Das produces in the interlude here. Deveshi Sahgal’s singing isn’t a match for what Mallya and Virk accomplish, but she manages to convey that emotion well. Reuniting with Trivedi after Udta Punjab, Mallya gets one more song in the album, a piece for the lovelorn titled Sacchi Mohabbat that he delivers with an equally competent Jonita Gandhi. Two more exceptional musicians steal the show in the backdrop, Arshad Khan on the esraj and Omkar Dhumal on shehnai, both of whom Amit employs in the album on multiple occasions. Another of the album’s lightest compositions is Chonch Ladiyaan, where the composer is in top form with his arrangement. Arshad Khan’s esraj once again finds spectaular usage (in a way occasionally evocative of Manjha from Kai Po Che), but equally winning is Satyajit Jamsandekar’s percussion (love that there is a subtle inclusion of the ghunghroo sound every time the naache phrase appears). And giving life to Shellee’s words loaded with incredibly imaginative analogies, are Jazim Sharma and Harshdeep Kaur (who is having a great year so far).

The movie’s title song, titled Jaisi Teri Marzi, sees Kaur share vocal duties with Bhanu Pratap Singh. The song is quite commonplace in its feel-good-ness, but passes muster for the singing quality and interesting treatment, especially with the percussion; riding on finger snaps until Kaur utters Manmarziyaan, over a minute and a half into the song wherein Sanket Naik’s dhols kick in. Shellee invents the word fyaar (supposedly implying lust) for Manmarziyaan, and it appears in two of the songs. F for Fyaar (that title in a movie produced by Fuh Se Phantom – surely more than just a coincidence?) carries an indisputable similarity to the dark, pulsating folktronica that dominated Udta Punjab’s soundscape. The sound works quite effectively here too, that said – Mast Ali’s earnest voice sort of keeps the song grounded, and Sikander Kahlon’s rap entry, though not great writing, is a nice touch too. Props also to Tapas Roy for his work on the tumbi. In Fyaar Pe Duniya the composer goes for a 90s flavour. Not a big fan of this song, but it is nice to hear Alamgir Khan after a gap. The mercurial Rumi (played by Taapsee Pannu) gets two searing tributes in the soundtrack. Devenderpal Singh and Babu Haabi deliver Bijlee Giregi which is again built on a standard folksy tune, but works for the thrumming electronic backdrop and Shellee’s words – sample cutie pie ni kutti pie hai! It is Prabh Deep’s Sherni (which he writes himself) which is a much more engaging affair musically. The dubstep-ish arrangement is absolutely heady, and I loved the way Prabh Deep raps – it’s a pity the song lasts just 1.5 minutes.

Amit Trivedi channels his oft (and successfully) employed sprightly dance track format to create Dhayanchand, and here too it is highly likely you will end up humming Dhyaan Kithe Dhyanchand for a long time after the song is done. Once again, the folk instruments featured – and there is quite an assortment, played by Vijay Yamla (who is also credited as a singer) and Kuku Duggi – contribute big time to the song’s allure. Similar story with the wedding themed song, Kundali – trademark Amit Trivedi arrangements, but man what an addictive groove that Laao ji laao refrain has! The ladies singing the song (all singers whom Amit has featured in his songs in the past) are in their elements, as is Omkar Dhumal with his shehnai (also watch out for that cameo from harmonium master Akhlak Hussain Varsi towards the very end). Shellee’s snappy lines are a riot, even incorporating a DDLJ reference at one point. The most heartening aspect of the song Jala Di is to hear Romy singing for Amit; I have been lamenting the fact that only Shashwat Sachdev seems inclined to use the very talented singer – and it is indeed his singing along with Jatinder Singh that is the highlight of the fairly regular Punjabi track peppered with occasional electronic segues. Romy is also heard in Hallaa, one of my two top favourites from the album. It is Jyoti Nooran who shines in the vocal department here though with a supreme effort, even as Amit builds a hypnotic electronic piece around the simple yet highly addictive melody. Finally, my other favourite, Grey Walaa Shade, where Shellee continues in the fyaar vein, talking of mutual favour and the like. The song however starts off on a more sedate note, with Jazim Sharma’s soulful rendition of the opening lines, before Harshdeep Kaur makes her entry with the flirtatious tone in Ishq Nazariya – love the way Amit has structured the melody here. Sharma sounds almost like Rahat Fateh Ali Khan used to sound in his Bol Na Halke Halke times (I know this sounds mean, but when Jazim Sharma sings ghise pitey version-nu maaro update, it takes on an additional implication to me, in this context!) – I hope we get to hear more of him.

Manmarziyaan. Director Anurag Kashyap’s reunion with Amit Trivedi brings back his love for mammoth soundtracks. While the repetitiveness gets in the way on more than one occasion this time, the composer still manages to deliver a supremely engaging soundtrack, with ample help from Shellee and a bunch of incredible musicians. Also doffing my hat to Anurag Kashyap for the way he has used the songs in the movie.

Music Aloud Rating: 4/5

Top Recos: Hallaa, Grey Walaa Shade, Kundali, Chonch Ladiyaan, Dhayaanchand, Daryaa

This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.

Musician Credits

1) F For Fyaar
Singers: Vicky Kaushal & Mast Ali
Rap By: Sikander Kahlon
Music: Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Shellee
Rap Lyrics: Sikander Kahlon
Programmed & Arranged By: Amit Trivedi
Recording Engineers A T Studios Mumbai – Abhishek Sortey & Urmila Sutar
Assisted By: Firoz Shaikh
Mixed & Mastered By: Shadab Rayeen, A T Studios & New Edge – Mumbai.
Assisted By: Abhishek Sortey & Dhananjay Khapekar
Executive Producer: A T Studios – Krutee Trivedi
Head Of Production: A T Studios – Aashish Narula
Programmed By: Amit Trivedi & Vineeth Jayan
Tumbi : Tapas Roy

2) Daryaa
Singers: Ammy Virk & Shahid Mallya
Music: Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Shellee
Produced & Arranged By: Amit Trivedi
Recording Engineers A T Studios Mumbai – Abhishek Sortey & Urmila Sutar
Assisted By: Firoz Shaikh
Mixed & Mastered By: Shadab Rayeen, A T Studios & New Edge – Mumbai
Assisted By: Abhishek Sortey & Dhananjay Khapekar
Executive Producer: A T Studios – Krutee Trivedi
Head Of Production: A T Studios – Aashish Narula
Programmed By: Amit Trivedi, Gourab Dutta & Vineeth Jayan
Flute By: Paras Nath
Guitar By: Sanjoy Das

3) Grey Walaa Shade
Singers: Harshdeep Kaur & Jazim Sharma
Music: Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Shellee
Produced & Arranged By: Amit Trivedi
Recording Engineers A T Studios Mumbai: Abhishek Sortey & Urmila Sutar
Assisted By: Firoz Shaikh
Mixed & Mastered By: Shadab Rayeen, A T Studios & New Edge – Mumbai
Assisted By: Abhishek Sortey & Dhananjay Khapekar
Executive Producer: A T Studios – Krutee Trivedi
Head Of Production: A T Studios – Aashish Narula
Programmed By: Amit Trivedi, Gourab Dutta & Raja Rasaily
Guitar By: Ridu Shaw

4) DhayaanChand
Singers: Vijay Yamla, Nikhita Gandhi, Amit Trivedi & Suhas Sawant
Music: Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Shellee
Programmed & Arranged By: Amit Trivedi
Recording Engineers A T Studios Mumbai – Abhishek Sortey & Urmila Sutar
Assisted By: Firoz Shaikh
Folk Instruments Recording Studio Inderlok Studio (Ludhiana) Recording Engineer – Dinesh Sharma
Mixed & Mastered By: Shadab Rayeen, A T Studios & New Edge – Mumbai
Assisted By: Abhishek Sortey & Dhananjay Khapekar
Executive Producer: A T Studios – Krutee Trivedi
Head Of Production: A T Studios – Aashish Narula
Programmed By: Amit Trivedi & Vineeth Jayan
Tumbi, Tumba, Been, Dhadd & Bugdu By: Vijay Yamla
Dhol By: Kukki Jogi

5) Chonch Ladhiyaan
Singers: Harshdeep Kaur & Jazim Sharma
Music: Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Shellee
Produced & Arranged By: Amit Trivedi
Recording Engineers A T Studios Mumbai – Abhishek Sortey & Urmila Sutar
Assisted By: Firoz Shaikh
Mixed & Mastered By: Shadab Rayeen, A T Studios & New Edge – Mumbai
Assisted By: Abhishek Sortey & Dhananjay Khapekar
Executive Producer: A T Studios – Krutee Trivedi
Head Of Production: A T Studios – Aashish Narula
Programmed By: Amit Trivedi & Gourab Dutta
Guitar By: Ridu Shaw
Israj By Arshad Khan
Dholak & Percussions By: Satyajit Jamsandekar

6) Hallaa
Singers: Jyoti Nooran & Romy
Music: Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Shellee
Produced & Arranged By: Amit Trivedi
Recording Engineers A T Studios Mumbai – Abhishek Sortey & Urmila Sutar
Assisted By: Firoz Shaikh
Mixed & Mastered By: Shadab Rayeen, A T Studios & New Edge – Mumbai
Assisted By: Abhishek Sortey & Dhananjay Khapekar
Executive Producer: A T Studios – Krutee Trivedi
Head Of Production: A T Studios – Aashish Narula
Programmed By: Amit Trivedi, Vineeth Jayan & Raja Rasaily
Shehnai By: Omkar Dhumal

7) Sacchi Mohabbat
Singers: Shahid Mallya & Jonita Gandhi
Music: Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Shellee
Produced & Arranged By: Amit Trivedi
Recording Engineers A T Studios Mumbai – Abhishek Sortey & Urmila Sutar
Assisted By: Firoz Shaikh
Mixed & Mastered By: Shadab Rayeen, A T Studios & New Edge – Mumbai
Assisted By: Abhishek Sortey & Dhananjay Khapekar
Executive Producer A T Studios – Krutee Trivedi
Head Of Production A T Studios – Aashish Narula
Programmed By: Amit Trivedi, Gourab Dutta & Vineeth Jayan
Israj By: Arshad Khan
Shehnai By: Omkar Dhumal

8) Jaisi Teri Marzi
Singers: Harshdeep Kaur & Bhanu Pratap Singh
Music: Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Shellee
Produced & Arranged By: Amit Trivedi
Recording Engineers A T Studios Mumbai – Abhishek Sortey & Urmila Sutar
Assisted By: Firoz Shaikh
Mixed & Mastered By: Shadab Rayeen, A T Studios & New Edge – Mumbai
Assisted By: Abhishek Sortey & Dhananjay Khapekar
Executive Producer A T Studios – Krutee Trivedi
Head Of Production A T Studios – Aashish Narula
Programmed By: Amit Trivedi & Raja Rasaily
Percussions By: Sanket Naik
Mandolin, Saz & Bouzouki By: Tapas Roy

9) Bijlee Giregi
Singers: Devenderpal Singh, Babu Haabi, Sikander Kahlon & Vaishali Sardana
Music: Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Shellee
Produced & Arranged By: Amit Trivedi
Recording Engineers A T Studios Mumbai – Abhishek Sortey & Urmila Sutar
Assisted By: Firoz Shaikh
Folk Instruments Recording Studio Inderlok Studio (Ludhiana) Recording Engineer: Dinesh Sharma
Mixed & Mastered By: Shadab Rayeen, A T Studios & New Edge – Mumbai
Assisted By: Abhishek Sortey & Dhananjay Khapekar
Executive Producer A T Studios – Krutee Trivedi
Head Of Production A T Studios – Aashish Narula
Programmed By: Amit Trivedi, Vineeth Jayan & Raja Rasaily
Algoza By: Vijay Yamla

10) Kundali
Singers: Meenal Jain, Yashita Sharma, Yashika Sikka, Rani Kaur, Anita Gandharva, Meghna Mishra & Vaishnavi Mishra
Music: Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Shellee
Produced & Arranged By: Amit Trivedi
Recording Engineers A T Studios Mumbai – Abhishek Sortey & Urmila Sutar
Assisted By: Firoz Shaikh
Mixed & Mastered By: Shadab Rayeen, A T Studios & New Edge – Mumbai
Assisted By: Abhishek Sortey & Dhananjay Khapekar
Executive Producer A T Studios – Krutee Trivedi
Head Of Production A T Studios – Aashish Narula
Programmed By: Amit Trivedi & Vineeth Jayan
Shehnai By: Omkar Dhumal
Harmonium By: Akhlak Hussain Varsi

11) Daryaa – Unplugged
Singer: Deveshi Sahgal
Music: Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Shellee
Produced & Arranged By: Amit Trivedi
Recording Engineers A T Studios Mumbai – Abhishek Sortey & Urmila Sutar
Assisted By: Firoz Shaikh
Mixed & Mastered By: Shadab Rayeen, A T Studios & New Edge – Mumbai
Assisted By: Abhishek Sortey & Dhananjay Khapekar
Executive Producer A T Studios – Krutee Trivedi
Head Of Production A T Studios – Aashish Narula
Guitar By: Sanjoy Das

12) Jala Di
Singers: Romy & Jatinder Singh
Music: Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Shellee

13) Fyaar Pe Duniya
Singer: Alamgir Khan
Music: Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Shellee
Produced & Arranged By: Amit Trivedi
Recording Engineers A T Studios Mumbai – Abhishek Sortey & Urmila Sutar
Assisted By: Firoz Shaikh
Mixed & Mastered By: Shadab Rayeen, A T Studios & New Edge – Mumbai
Assisted By: Abhishek Sortey & Dhananjay Khapekar
Executive Producer A T Studios – Krutee Trivedi
Head Of Production A T Studios – Aashish Narula
Programmed By: Saurabh Lokhande

14) Sherni
Singer: Prabh Deep
Music: Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Prabh Deep

Songs and musician credits at the end.

This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.

Bollywood’s second favourite punching bag for remixes these days after classic Hindi songs, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (well I guess one must be thankful that the borrowing is at least “official” now), has one more of his compositions subjected to a tribute in Batti Gul Meter Chalu. Dekhte Dekhte is adapted by Rochak Kohli, with Manoj Muntashir supplying additional lyrics. To be fair, this is a relatively decent adaptation, letting the well-known melody take the centre stage and Atif Aslam delivers it well too. While Kohli’s arrangement begins evoking the Bhatt soundscape, it soon goes 90s with the dholaks and the like – while I am not a great fan of the template itself, it works well for the tune. What does not work is a second version of the song which is alike in every aspect except that Atif is replaced by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. First of all, the singer does a less impressive job than the former, and secondly, if you want to feature an alternate version (which I don’t get the point of, to be honest), why not make it a Nusrat original instead? Veteran composer Anu Malik too takes the 90s route for his solo offering, Gold Tamba, written by Siddharth-Garima (who pen all the remaining songs). While the song’s energy level keeps it engaging albeit in a familiar way, it is Nakash Aziz’s singing that truly stands out above all else.

The last two songs of the album come from the composing duo Sachet Parampara, who had debuted in 2017 with director Shree Narayan Singh’s last film. The first song is an unremarkable party track, but you probably already guessed that from the song’s title – Hard Hard. Singing is handled by Mika Singh, Prakriti Kakar and Sachet Tandon who do a competent job, but that is beside the point. The composers however turn around and deliver the album’s best track in their other track – Har Har Gange. There isn’t much that happens in the tune over the three minutes of the song, it is essentially the same couplet melody repeated over and over for the most part, but what elevates the piece is the grand orchestration that accentuates its devotional fervour. Arijit Singh leads the proceedings in style, complemented well by the chorus. On a side note, the raag yaman flavour, the grandeur and the presence of Arijit and Siddharth Garima mean that this song would probably have fit right into a Sanjay Leela Bhansali soundtrack!

Batti Gul Meter Chalu. Hardly any gold here sadly, it is mostly just tamba, at best.

Music Aloud Rating: 2/5

Top Recos: Har Har Gange, Gold Tamba

Musician Credits

1. Song – Gold Tamba
Singer – Nakash Aziz
Lyrics –Siddharth- Garima
Music – Anu Malik
Music Programmer-D J Phukan
Guitars-Pawan Rasaily
Sound Production – Dhruba
Recorded And Mixed At Neo Sounds By Pankaj Borah

2. Song: Dekhte Dekhte
Singer: Atif Aslam
Music Recreated by: Rochak Kohli
Lyrics Rewritten by: Manoj Muntashir
Original Lyrics: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Original Music: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Additional credits
Song Produced, Mixed and Mastered by – Bharat Goel @ Global Sound Labs
Associate Programming, Keys by – Feroz Khan
Guitars by – Mohit Dogra
Additional Vocals by – Altamash Faridi, Ashish

3. Song: Dekhte Dekhte
Singer: Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
Music Recreated by: Rochak Kohli
Lyrics Rewritten by: Manoj Muntashir
Original Lyrics: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Original Music: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Additional credits
Song Produced, Mixed and Mastered by – Bharat Goel @ Global Sound Labs
Associate Programming, Keys by – Feroz Khan
Guitars by – Mohit Dogra
Additional Vocals by – Altamash Faridi, Ashish

4. Song : Hard Hard
Singers: Mika Singh, Sachet Tandon, Prakriti Kakar
Music: Sachet-Parampara
Lyrics: Siddharth-Garima
Music produced by Abhijit Vaghani
Additional programming: Sourabh Lokhande
Mix and Mastered by Aftab Khan at Headroom Studio Mumbai
Mix assistant Vatsal Chevli
Music Assistants – O2SRK
Vocals Recorded at : Neo Sound by Pranjal Bor

5. Song – Har Har Gange
Singer: Arijit Singh
Music: Sachet-Parampara
Lyrics: Siddharth-Garima
Music Produced: O2srk
Choir: Clyde Rodrigues, Nihar Shembekar, Nitesh Kadam, Warsha Easwar, Sachet Tandon, Parampara Thakur
Mix And Master By Vijay Dayal At Yashraj Studios
Mix Assistant: Chinmay Mestry
Music Label: T-Series

Songs and musician credits at the end.

This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.

The quarrelsome nature of the two sisters constituting Pataakha’s lead characters is encapsulated wonderfully in Balma where they are heard dissing each other’s lover. The voices come from Rekha Bhardwaj and Sunidhi Chauhan, both of whom are no strangers to such fast paced songs, and nail the rendition (did Sunidhi sneak in a nod to Sridevi with her Balllma around the 3 minute mark?). Gulzar’s lines are set in the dialect, and Bhardwaj’s arrangement is a folk instrument-laden tapestry (though most of them don’t seem to be live, going by YouTube credits). Rekha Bhardwaj does even better in Hello Hello where she goes solo on lead vocals (with a fine chorus supporting her), clearly having a ball of a time delivering Gulzar’s on-point rhymes (bheetarrrr-teetarrrrr-sweeterrrr, to pick a favourite set). Also loved the way VB has incorporated the bass cameos at the end of each interlude.

It is probably something to do the movie’s title, that most of Pataakha’s songs carry a raucous, celebratory vibe. After Balma and Hello Hello, the “explosive” title song too continues on the same energy level. And here it is the composer himself behind the mic – it is nice to hear him sing something different from the mellow kind of songs we are used to hearing his voice in. And this is the song that features the most live instruments, and a delightful array at that – accordion, violin and horns; all of which lend the song a vibrant soundscape that does not sound anything Rajasthani, but is highly engaging all the same.  Bhardwaj gets Sukhwinder Singh to lead the Holi song Gali Gali and the man produces a superb tipsy rendition – the way the chorus breaks the line after kullad phode on multiple occasions reminds me of the kaare kaare pause in Kajra Re (incidentally also written by Gulzar saab). The album’s best is its only song that digresses from its dominant theme. Naina Banjaare, instead, is a  delectable romantic melody, and is sung by the man who also sang my favourite songs in VB-Gulzar’s last (Rangoon) – Arijit Singh. While Arijit is in exceptional form singing this one, equally stellar is Ankur Mukherjee’s work on the guitar which is almost as prominent in the song as the singer’s voice.

Pataakha is the shortest soundtrack that a Vishal Bhardwaj directed film has had in a very long time. It remains a solid entertainer from the prolific team nevertheless, even if the soundscape isn’t always true to its setting and doesn’t touch the high of their past collaborations.

Music Aloud Rating: 3.5/5

Top Recos: Naina Banjaare, Pataakha, Balma

Musician Credits

Song – Balma
Singers – Rekha Bhardwaj & Sunidhi Chauhan
Music – Vishal Bhardwaj
Lyricist – Gulzar
Arrangers/Programmers – Ketan Sodha
Music Producer – Ketan Sodha
Choreographer – Shabina Khan
Dholak – Raju Sardar & Mohd. Yusuf
Music Assistant – Mayukh Sarkar
Recorded By Salman Khan Afridi @ Studio Satya, Mumbai
Mixed & Mastered by TanaY GajjaR @ Wow&flutteR Studio
Assisted by Rupak Thakur

Song – Pataakha
Singer – Vishal Bhardwaj
Music – Vishal Bhardwaj
Lyricist – Gulzar
Music Producer – Ketan Sodha
Acoustic Guitar & Music Assistant – Mayukh Sarkar
Violin – Thomas Gould
Accordion – Eddie Hession
Clarinet – Peter Cigleris
Tenor Trombone – Colin Sheen
Bass Trombone – Ian Moffat
Trumpet – Paul Beniston
Recorded By – Salman Khan Afridi @ Studio Satya, Mumbai
Orchestra Recorded By Jeremy Murphy @ Angel Studios, London
Mixed & Mastered by TanaY GajjaR @ Wow&flutteR Studio Assisted by Rupak Thakur

Song – Hello Hello
Singer – Rekha Bhardwaj
Music – Vishal Bhardwaj
Lyricist – Gulzar
Music Producer – Ketan Sodha
Additional Music Programming – Debarpito Saha
Choreographer – Ganesh Acharya
Choir – Sugandha, Keya Dutta, Meena Joshi, Vijaya Laxmi, Nazim Hussain, Sonu Khan, Irfan Nazan & Mahesh Kumar Rao
Dholak – Raju Sardar & Mohd. Yusuf
Music Assistant – Mayukh Sarkar
Recorded by Salman Khan Afridi @ Studio Satya, Mumbai
Mixed & Mastered by TanaY GajjaR @ Wow&flutteR Studio Assisted by Rupak Thakur

Song – Naina Banjare
Singer – Arijit Singh
Music – Vishal Bhardwaj
Lyricist – Gulzar
Music Producer – Ketan Sodha
Music Assistant – Mayukh Sarkar
Guitar – Ankur Mukherjee
Recorded By Rupak Thakur @ Studio Satya, Mumbai
Mixed & Mastered by TanaY GajjaR @ Wow&flutteR Studio Assisted by Rupak Thakur

Song – Gali Gali
Singer – Sukhwinder Singh
Music – Vishal Bhardwaj
Lyricist – Gulzar
Music Producer – Ketan Sodha
Additional Music Programming – Debarpito Saha
Music Assistant – Mayukh Sarkar
Choreographer – Shabina Khan
Choir – Mridul Ghosh, Sudhanshu Shome, Pankaj Dixit & Divyaansh Mehta
Recorded By Salman Khan Afridi @ Studio Satya, Mumbai
Mixed & Mastered by TanaY GajjaR @ Wow&flutteR Studio Assisted by Rupak Thakur

Songs and musician credits at the end.

This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.

Bann Titli was apparently composed by Sneha Khanwalkar for a scrapped Dibakar Bannerjee (who is credited to have written this song alongside Khanwalkar) project, which is probably why the song’s title carries a cheeky gratis (meaning free) suffix to it. I am very curious as to what this Bannerjee project was going to be, as the song is a fab replication of the 30s-40s musical era of Bollywood. Composer seems to keep the orchestration authentic, even as Rekha Bhardwaj nails the classical-flavoured rendition evoking the singing style of the time. In Nagri Nagri, based on a poem by Meeraji, it is yet another veteran singer pulling the retro rendition off in style, Shankar Mahadevan. The arrangement here doesn’t sound true to the period always, but is no less captivating, particularly for the percussion which veers towards Arabic as the song progresses (that initial combination of folk percussion and bulbul tarang took my mind back to Ha Rehem/Mehfuz from Amit Trivedi’s debut movie Aamir).

Over her career, Sneha Khanwalkar has shone the spotlight on multiple fine musicians (most significant of them probably the Nooran sisters). With Ab Kya Bataun (beautiful poem by Seemaab Akbarabadi), she goes to another lesser known (in Bollywood, at least), but brilliant singer named Shubha Joshi. The lady she voices for the movie is apparently Ila Arun, playing Jaddanbai. Fitting that a song honouring the first female music director of the industry is composed by another in that league. And while Joshi goes about her singing the traditional way, Khanwalkar’s backdrop moves from classical to jazz terrain, the contrast accentuating the song’s charm. The highlight of the jazz side of things is Joseph Vessoaker whose trumpet solos take on as prominent a role as Joshi’s singing in the song’s latter half. Khanwalkar’s final offering for the album where she takes on a Faiz poem is my favourite. Composer gets a lovely yaman-flavoured (I think) melody in place for Bol Ke Lab Azaad Hain that Rashid Khan and Vidya Shah deliver to perfection. The arrangement is a rich tapestry of strings (Anubrato Ghatak) to which gets added the occasional splash of harmonium (Zoheb Khan), tabla (Satyajit Talwalkar), and clarinet (Raj Sodha), all to delightful effect!

The movie has also had a promotional song out (not part of the official soundtrack), from Raftaar. As expected, the song is totally different from the rest of the soundtrack in terms of sound; the rapper building a tirade (an explicit one, at that) with contemporary significance around relevant snippets of Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s quotes from the movie. Very effective verse too, that the man renders himself, with a groovy arrangement to boot. Not something you might want to listen to alongside the other songs, if you want to stay with the retro mood, but a track worth looping for sure.

Manto. Sneha Khanwalkar ends her break with another whopper that is totally in character with her largely offbeat repertoire. Wish the soundtrack was longer though. And curious why the makers did not choose a work by Manto himself towards the album.

Music Aloud Rating: 4/5

Top Recos: All of them!

PS: Thanks to these wonderfully done interviews of Sneha Khanwalkar (1 and 2) for supplying some of the soundtrack-related trivia.

Musician Credits

Song – Ban Titli (Gratis)
Singer – Rekha Bhardwaj
Music – Sneha Khanwalkar
Lyricist – Dibakar Banerjee & Sneha Khanwalkar

Song – Ab Kya Bataun
Singer – Shubha Joshi
Music – Sneha Khanwalkar
Lyricist – Simaab Akbarabadi
Produced By Jeremy Fonseca, Zubin Balaporia
Harmonium: Bhavdeep Jaipurwale
Trumpet: Joseph Vessoaker
Recorded By Nigel Rajaratnam
Backing Vocals: Daniel B.George

Song – Nagri Nagri
Singer – Shankar Mahadevan
Music – Sneha Khanwalkar
Lyricist – Meeraji
Produced By Anjo John
Rhythm And Percussion: Anand Bhagat
Violins: Kamal Kamble
Recorded By Abhishek Gautam, Mumbai
Recorded By Pawan Bhatia At Aalaap Studios, Indore
Mixed by Pritesh Panchal at Barbet Studio, Mumbai

Song – Bol Ke Lab Azaad Hain
Singers – Rashid Khan & Vidya Shah
Music – Sneha Khanwalkar
Lyricist – Faiz Ahmed Faiz
Produced By Anjo John & Zubin Balaporia
Viola/Violin/Cello: Anubrato Ghatak
Clarinet: Raj Sodha
Harmonium: Zoheb Khan
Tabla: Satyajit Talwalkar
Percussion & Mouth Percussion: Taufiq Qureshi
Bass: Randolph Correia

Song – Mantoiyat
Music – Raftaar
Vocals – Raftaar and Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Lyrics – Raftaar and Saadat Hasan Manto
Rhythm And Percussion – Raftaar
Guitars – Tenzing Lama
Recorded At Raftaar’s Home Studio (Delhi)
Mixed and Mastered by Abhishek Ghatak

Songs and musician credits at the end (thanks to Varun Grover for sharing the latter on twitter).

This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.

The brief for Chaav Laaga appears to have been to try and recreate the magic of Moh Moh Ke Dhaage. While I would still rate the latter higher, there is no denying that Chaav Laaga is a fabulous song – both the music and the words beautifully conveying the simplicity of a village romance. Papon is retained on the vocal front here, and he is joined by the brilliant Ronkini Gupta, and alongside them, guitarist Ankur Mukherjee and flautist Naveen Kumar shine among the instrumentalists. Composer goes further up the classical route for Gupta’s solo track Tu Hi Aham, one that the lyricist calls “a sceptic’s bhajan”. Wonderfully realised song once again on all counts, but the star of the song is the singer, who is in spectacular form carrying out the nuanced rendition. Naveen’s flute once again finds good usage here – particularly loved the second interlude featuring him and the tabla (Sanjeev Sen).

Khatar Patar is light-hearted as indicated by its onomatopoeic title, but intended as a motivational piece at which it succeeds notwithstanding the tone, and Grover’s words are instrumental in this (loved the usages like sui seedhi khadi naache dhaaga). It is Papon delivering this one to Anu Malik’s backdrop that is a rich and charming melange of accordion, plucked strings, violin and world percussion. The alternate title song that is decidedly more motivational musically, revisits some of the lyrical references from the previous song. While Divya Kumar’s singing is spirited as he always is, the song isn’t as effective as I would have liked. Malik shares lyrical duties with Grover for the final track Sab Badhiya Hai, a boisterous folk piece that Sukhwinder Singh leads, Salman Ali chipping in with the occasional soaring alaaps. Not a particularly fresh sounding piece, but the energy levels (largely drawing from the percussion) make it work.

Sui Dhaaga. While I did rate Chaav Laga lower than Moh Moh, as an overall album, this one offers a more consistent experience than DLKH.

Music Aloud Rating: 3.5/5

Top Recos: Chaav Laga, Tu Hi Aham, Khatar Patar

Musician Credits

Recording and Mixing

YRF Studios

Programming and Arrangements

Jim Satya

Mix Engineer (YRF)

Shantanu Hudlikar

Recording Engineers (YRF)

Abhishek Khandelwal

Manasi Tare

Musicians

Ukulele & Acoustic Guitars: Ankur Mukherjee

All plucked instruments: Tapas Roy

Flute: Naveen Kumar

Sitar: Niladri Kumar

Solo Violin: Sandilya Pisapati

Tabla: Sanjeev Sen

Live rhythms & Percussion section: Dipesh Varma

Percussions (Chaav Laaga): Dipesh Varma, Satyajit Jamsandekar, Rahul Rupawate

Percussions (Khatar Patar): Dipesh Varma, Satyajit Jamsandekar, Keyur Barve, Shikhar Naad Qureshi, Rahul Rupawate

String Section: Andrew MacKay

FAME’s Macedonian Symphonic Orchestra

Conductor: Oleg Kontratenko

Sound Engineer: Giorgi Hristovski

Pro Tools Operator: Atanas Babaleski

Stage Managers: Riste Trajkovski, Ilija Grkovski

India Orchestra Coordinator: Andrew T MacKay/Bohemic Junction Ltd

Orchestrator: Michael Hyman

Backing vocals and vocal arranger:

Maywrj Kudalkar

Pragati Joshi

Deepti Rege

Rucha Padhye

Umesh Joshi

Vijay Dhuri

Vivek Naik

Swapnil Godbole

Musician Coordinator: Francis Rodrigues