Music: Khamosh Shah
Lyrics: Vijay Maurya, Swanand Kirkire, Azazul Haque & Khamosh Shah
Music Label: Zee Music
Expectations:
There are none, really.
Music:
There is a glut of so many new voices coming up of late that we wonder how to distinguish one from the other, as everyone's going the high-pitched ones and the ubiquitous vocal processing on machines does the rest - of the confusion, that is.
Khamosh Shah, the composer of this album, who also writes some of the lyrics, sings the sober 'Naina' (written by Azazul Haque), and this is a case in point. The fairly pleasant though complex composition with some melodiously arranged orchestration has the singer sounding like Arijit Singh, Papon and others in different parts of the song.
The lyrics (Swanand Kirkire) of 'Bachpan' (Amit Trivedi) sound like the typical Gulzar-ian brand of esoteric imagery. With an Amit-like compositional structure and orchestral tenor, the song emerges as a hybrid number that makes too much of an (unsuccessful) effort to sound poignant.
Nakash 'Saree ke fall sa' Aziz treis his best in the fun track 'Na Heer na hoor' but the dull composition and trite words (Azazul Haque) allow nothing but a forgettable ditty.
Anand Shinde and Vaishali Made sing the completely Marathi 'Ye na gade' (penned by Vijay Maurya). Though we welcome another language as a change from the all-pervading and incomprehensible Punjabi that we hear in every second film, we hope that the situation strongly justifies the use of a non-Hindi song in a Hindi movie. Also, this is the only track in the film that is completely cacophonous, and Khamosh must know the difference between a rousing song and a raucous one.
Khamosh, as a composer, also seems to be either strongly influenced by past successful names or has a way of paying tributes that goes more towards imitation. His 'Dil lagaana' (for which he also pens lyrics) is exactly like the (inferior) songs Altaf Raja would sing and compose in the '90s after he became a rage - and Altaf is singing here!
Similarly 'Hunterr 303' is in the Bappi Lahiri canon, as Bappi is singing it as well. The lyrics (Vijay Maurya) are trite and suggestive, and Bappi is his usual self.
That leaves us with the album's moderate saving grace. 'Chori chori' (sung nicely by Arijit Singh with Sona Mohapatra), Gentle and soothing, the song does not save the score, but becomes a passable oasis in this musical desert.
Overall:
This is a mediocre album overall, though we welcome the lack of 'contemporary' cacophony on this soundtrack. The Hunterr misses the game completely!
Our Pick:
'Chori Chori'