Songs and credits at the end.
Marx called religion the opiate of the masses – in Meri Pyaari Bindu, lyricist Kausar Munir calls the lead pair’s love for each other opiate (Afeemi). The composition itself isn’t as addictive as the title suggests however, though it makes for quite a pleasant listen. Sung by Sanah Moidutty and Jigar Saraiya, the song starts sounding indie-ish before taking a more filmy disposition. Kalyan Baruah’s guitar work is half the song’s charm, while Humtoo Dey chips in with a short but nice flute refrain. The song that takes a completely indie route is Khol De Baahein (the first thought I had on listening to Krishna Pradhan’s guitars and Monali Thakur’s Bengali start was to check whether this was an Anupam Roy composition!). The minimal arrangement puts the focus of the song squarely on the melody and singing, both of which are ace. And to hear Thakur sing the occasional Bengali verse is the icing on the cake! The opening bars of Haareya give me Kya Mujhe Pyaar Hai (Woh Lamhe) vibes, though the track takes its own course subsequently. Trippy song once again, and here too it is just the guitars (Indrajit Chetia this time) and the vocals (Arijit Singh, in fine form as usual) that constitute the song for most part.
Ayushmann Khurrana, who used to sing in every movie of his, seems to have got over that obsession since Dum Lagaa Ke Haisha. Instead, it is his co-star Parineeti Chopra who gets behind the mic here. To her credit, she does better than most of the current actors who have jumped on to the singing bandwagon. It is still inadequate for the Maana Ke Hum Yaar Nahin’s classical flavoured melody, however. The track itself turns out to be the weakling of the soundtrack and not just for the singing; the déjà vu factor in the arrangement too works against the song here. Even the alternate version of the song, though an improvement over the original with Sonu Nigam joining the actress, gets bogged down by the familiarity. The seven piece soundtrack’s rear end is brought up by two (thankfully non item-) dance tracks, both of which carry a retro vibe. Ye Jawaani Teri is boisterous and fun as rock n roll songs come, that Sachin Jigar reference the Pancham brand of rock n roll makes it even more enjoyable. Behind the mic, Nakash Aziz and Jonita Gandhi match the song’s energy to a tee. Paresh Kamath’s guitar and Kishore Sodha’s trumpet dominate the funky orchestration of Iss Tarah that turns out to be an even more fun piece. Composers get the musician couple Clinton Cerejo and Dominique Cerejo to handle the vocals, both of whom do an exceptional job at that.
Meri Pyaari Bindu does indeed deliver on its promise, Sachin Jigar producing a winner after a long gap. The Yash Raj collaboration seems to be working out really well for them!
Music Aloud Rating: 3.5/5
Top Recos: Khol De Baahein, Iss Tarah, Haareya
This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.
Musician credits
Khol De Baahein
Music: Sachin Jigar
Lyrics: Kausar Munir
Singer: Monali Thakur
Guitar: Krishna Pradhan
Iss Tarah
Music: Sachin Jigar
Lyrics: Kausar Munir
Singers: Clinton Cerejo, Dominique Cerejo
Guitars: Paresh Kamath
Trumpet: Kishore Sodha
Haareya
Music: Sachin Jigar
Lyrics: Priya Saraiya
Singer: Arijit Singh
Guitars: Indrajit Chetia
Yeh Jawaani Teri
Music: Sachin Jigar
Lyrics: Kausar Munir
Singers: Nakash Aziz, Jonita Gandhi
Guitars: Shomu Seal
Electric Piano & Organs: Rinku Rajput
Trumpet: Kishore Sodha
Saxophone: Shyamraj
Drums: Debashish Bannerjee
Afeemi
Music: Sachin Jigar
Lyrics: Kausar Munir
Singers: Sanah Moidutty, Jigar Saraiya
Backing Vocals: Danw Cordo, Crystal Sequeira
Guitars: Kalyan Baruah
Piano: Rinku Rajput
Flute: Humtoo Dey
Drums: Lindsay D’Mello
Maana Ke Hum Yaar Nahi
Music: Sachin Jigar
Lyrics: Kausar Munir
Singers: Parineeti Chopra, Sonu Nigam (in Duet Version)
Guitars: Krishna Pradhan
Piano: Rinku Rajput
Flute: Shreeram Sampath
Sarangi: Dilshad Khan
Percussions: Arun Solanki
Programming & Arrangement: Sachin Jigar
Mix Engineers: Shantanu Hudlikar, Abhishek Khandelwal
Recording Engineer: Abhishek Khandelwal, Mansi Tare
Recorded & Mixed at: YRF Studios
Music Production Head: Romil Ved
