Songs and partial credits at the end.
After giving Jonita Gandhi fast numbers in his last two movies (Sau Tarah Ke in Dishoom, The Breakup Song in Ae Dil Hai Muskhil), Pritam decides to try out her melodic side in Dangal with Gilehriyaan. An excellent move as it turns out; the lady is on top of her game delivering the song to perfection. Melody-oriented songs are something Pritam has almost always excelled in, and here he produces an incredibly charming tune. The arrangement too is exquisite, highlighted by the guitars (Nikhil Paul George) and other plucked strings (Tapas Roy). The other melodic piece of the soundtrack isn’t half as effective though, in fact Naina in some ways comes across as a distant cousin of Channa Mereya. The key ingredients are pretty much the same – Pritam’s music, Amitabh Bhattacharya’s lines, Arijit Singh’s voice and the general pathos. It even starts off with a vocal prelude like Channa did. The arrangement is neatly done here too (once again the strings are well employed), but a weak melody bogs the song down. Or perhaps it is just the comparison with Channa running at the back of my mind. Daler Mehndi’s power-packed voice is perfect choice for the movie’s titular anthem Dangal Dangal, and with an able chorus to boot, he does a fine rendition of the song even as the composer smartly juxtaposes folk percussion with the electric guitars (keep an ear out for the satisfying twangs from Ernest Tibbs’s bass during those very brief pauses in the song).
Amitabh Bhattacharya’s Haryanvi infused writing is on point and the star of the rest of the soundtrack. While Dangal extolled the protagonists in an anthemic fashion, Dhaakad takes a more low key – albeit way more threatening – hip hop route and ends up a more engaging product. The rapping by Raftaar is splendid, and the arrangement is a wacky concoction of folk and electronic (two interesting folk inclusions – Rajesh Kumar’s Haryanvi sarangi and Mukesh Nath’s been) elements. An alternate version of the song (does it even count as a Pritam soundtrack if at least one song does not have an additional version?!) has Aamir Khan on vocals. A good idea; partly because being a tuneless track it is the safest way to make an actor “sing”, and secondly because Aamir is really good with the rapping, almost giving Raftaar a run for his money with his diction and expressions and everything! You can guess the general direction of where Idiot Banna is going, from its title. And it does not disappoint, the humorous lines and Jyoti Nooran and Sultana Nooran’s exuberant delivery help the song rise above its fairly regular melody and arrangement. It is in *the* song of the soundtrack, Haanikaarak Bapu, that every element comes through. The debutant singer kids Sarwar Khan and Sartaz Khan Barna ace their respective parts, Pritam matches their energy with his folk-flavoured arrangement (the second interlude in particular), and Bhattacharya’s rhymes are a hoot – out and out fun this song!
Safely assuming that there are no more soundtracks to come from Pritam this year, Dangal is a wonderful high for the man to end the year on! And that’s back to back winners for the composer with Amitabh Bhattacharya.
Music Aloud Rating: 4/5
Top Recos: Haanikaarak Bapu, Gilehriyaan, Dhaakad
This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.
Musician credits
Haanikaarak Bapu
Singers : Sarwar Khan & Sartaz Khan Barna
Additional Vocals : Kheta Khan & Dayam Khan
Sound Design : Sunny M.R. & Dj Phukan
Programmers : Aditya Pushkarna, Sunny M.R. & Anurag Saikia
Mix & Master : Shadab Rayeen@Newedge
Assistant : Abhishek Sortey
Shootmix : Subhadeep Mitra
Recording Engineers : Ashwin Kulkarni, Himanshu Shirlekar & Kaushik Das
Gurjinder Singh, Akash Bamber, Kapil Chandhok
Vocal Conductor : Akashdeep Sengupta & Kaushik Das
Production Manger : Supriti Banerjee
Drums: Alan Hertz
Bass: Ernest Tibbs
Electric Guitars: Vadim Zilberstien & Amandeep Singh
Haryanvi Sarangi: Rajesh Kumar
Rhythm: Iqbal Azad, Hanif Dafrani, Aslam Dafrani & Yusuf Sheikh
Dangal Dangal
Singer : Daler Mehndi
Sound Design : Sunny M.R., Dj Phukan
Programmers :Aditya Pushkarna, Sunny M.R., Anurag Saikia, Arijit Singh
Mixed and Mastered by Sunny M.R. @Fiddle on the Roof
Shootmix : Ashwin Kulkarni
Recording Engineers: Kaushik Das, Ashwin Kulkarni, Himanshu Shirlekar, Aaroh Velankar
Julian Mascarenhas, Dev Arijit
Vocal Conductor : Akashdeep Sengupta & Kaushik Das
Production Manager : Supriti Banerjee
Musicians:
Percussions- Iqbal Azad, Girish Vishwa, Babloo Kumar, Ramjan Khavra, Ahmed Khavra
Guitar : Amandeep Singh & Roland Fernandes
Drums : Alan Hertz
Bass : Ernest Tibbs
Recorded @ Hertz Workz Studio by Alan Hertz
Drums & Bass dubs supervised by Sunny M.R.
Dhaakad
Singer : Raftaar/Aamir Khan
Sound Design : Sunny M.R., DJ Phukan
Programmers :Aditya Pushkarna, Sunny M.R., Anurag Saikia
Mix & Master : Shadab Rayeen@Newedge
Assistant : Abhishek Sortey
Shoot Mix : Subhadeep Mitra
Recording Engineers : Kaushik Das, Ashwin Kulkarni, Himanshu Shirlekar, Aaroh Velankar
Gurjinder Singh, Akash Bamber, Kapil Chandhok
Vocal Conductor : Akashdeep Sengupta & Kaushik Das
Production Manger : Supriti Banerjee
Haryanvi Sarangi : Rajesh Kumar
Been : Mukesh Nath
Gilehriyaan
Singer : Jonita Gandhi
Sound Design : Sunny M.R., Dj Phukan
Programmers : Ketan Sodha, Nikhil Paul George, Dj Phukan & Sunny M.R.
Mix & Master : Shadab Rayeen@Newedge
Assistant : Abhishek Sortey
Shootmix : Subhadeep Mitra
Recording Engineers : Kaushik Das, Ashwin Kulkarni, Himanshu Shirlekar, Aaroh Velankar, Julian Mascarenhas
Vocal Conductor : Akashdeep Sengupta & Kaushik Das
Production Manager : Supriti Banerjee
Plucks : Tapas Roy
Guitar : Nikhil Paul George
Strings : The Symphony Team conducted by Christian Lorenz
Naina (credits courtesy Arindam Nag)
Singer : Arijit Singh
Sound Design : Sunny M.R., Dj Phukan
Programmers : Tanuj tiku, Pritesh Mehta, Dj Phukan, Sunny M.R.
Mix & Master : Shadab Rayeen@Newedge
Assistant : Abhishek Sortey
Shoot Mix : Subhadeep Mitra
Recording Engineers : Kaushik Das, Ashwin Kulkarni, Himanshu Shirlekar, Aaroh Velankar, Julian Mascarenhas
Vocal Conductor : Akashdeep Sengupta & Kaushik Das
Production Manger : Supriti Banerjee
Guitar : Sanjoy Das
Violin : Mladen Stoyanov, Roman Baykov, Andrei Sitnikau, Ivan Vaglarov, Roman Petrowsky
Viola : Ivo Krastev, Peter Menyhart, Stanislawa Stoeva
Cello : Beniamin Chirca, Iuliia Krasteva, Michele Marrini
Double Bass : Corneliu Puican
Conductor : Christian Lorenz
