Ishaqzaade – Music Review

You can listen to the soundtrack here (link courtesy @iPeeKay)

The title song starts off a sounding a bit like it might be off composer Amit Trivedi’s Udaan line of songs before going its own way, riding on Javed Ali’s soulful vocals. The breezy orchestration, though nothing spectacular, is not without its high points, especially in the interludes. Shreya Ghoshal’s contribution comes in the form of a dreamy-sounding cameo towards the end. All said, what follow in the soundtrack totally sideline this song. The first of the rest, Pareshaan, has been on a loop in my playlist from the day it released, and will continue so for many more days to come. What a beauty! The husky voice of Shalmali Kolgade starting off on a whispery note and switching modes towards the title hook, and the matchingly climactic buildup that Amit gives the arrangement – mindblowing combination! And when you hear the harmonium being employed the way it is in this song, you can be sure that the composer is in finest touch – this is one instrument he has put to brilliant use in the past too. And I can’t help shake off the feeling that there is a second female vocalist involved in this song. Either that or Shalmali is very good at changing voices. Any which ways, wonderful find, this lady. The remix by Abhijit Vaghani, to his credit, is one of the finest remixes he has done, with an imaginative time signature change et al. But after the kind of arrangement in the original, nothing quite works.

Chokra Jawaan is one crazy package, Sunidhi Chauhan and Vishal Dadlani having a ball of a time with their five minute-long musical banter superbly penned by lyricist Kausar Munir Habib Faisal (thanks to @aham_sarvam for pointing it out). While the vocalists own the song, the composer complements them with a perfectly wacky arrangement that combines brass and folk. Even the tempo change halfway through is seamlessly done. The second title song Aafaton Ke Parinde has two contrasting vocal styles – a very Sukhwinder-seque Divya Kumar and Suraj Jagan together deliver one addictively racy song. The arrangement here sees multiple genres get blended fabulously into a dubstep-based template. And finally there is Jhalla Wallah, where Shreya Ghoshal is seen venturing into a territory of late a speciality of Rekha Bhardwaj, and proving that this too is child’s play for her. While Kausar Munir’s words are a riot, Shreya renders it with the right feel and more importantly the right accent. Amit’s arrangement does evoke memories of SEL’s classic Kajra Re in more places than one due to the instruments used, but without sounding like a reproduction of the same. Abhijit Vaghani’s remix slightly reminded me of the Bombay Vikings version of Chhod Do Aanchal. Nicely done though.

Amit Trivedi brushes off that relative low phase of 2011 with a stunner for Ishaqzaade.

Music Aloud Rating: 9/10

Top Recos: Full soundtrack! 🙂