Songs at the end.
Those who have watched the trailer of Bank Chor or caught any of its promos (there have been way too many for you to have missed them) would not be surprised by the tongue in cheek tone of the soundtrack. Song 1, Hum Hain Bank Chor, written and composed by Kailash Kher, starts with a parody of the Bande Hai Hum Uske verse from Dhoom 3, and generously throws around the bank chor phrase the way the expletive it resembles is used. Kher himself handles the lead vocals; Ambili (Menon?) joining him briefly with a rap cameo (written by her). The rapping is more extensive in two other songs of the movie. BC Rap Knockout: Mumbai vs Delhi has Naezy and Pardhaan trash talking each other over their respective cities, represented in the song’s video by the movie’s main man Riteish Deshmukh and boxing champion Vijender Singh. The rap is part smart and part silly, featuring some of the trademark phrases from the respective dialects. Shamir Tandon handles the music for this one. The other rap song sees the Bollywood return of Baba Sehgal after a considerable gap (the man has been fairly active elsewhere though – South Indian films, independent music and most importantly, Twitter). And the man continues to be as wacky as ever; Bae, Baba Aur Bank Chor is an absolutely random assortment of rhymes!
Rochak Kohli – a man who has regularly been part of multi composer lineups since his debut, and yet managed to produce a good portfolio of songs – creates two of the better songs from this soundtrack too. Tashreef is funnily written (by Adheesh Verma) and set to a pleasant, guitar-led arrangement. Kohli himself delivers the song in its original version and the Cups Version where the percussion is replaced with plastic cups and claps while the rest of the arrangement remains largely the same. Nakash Aziz rules the folk infused Jai Baba Bank Chor with his exuberance. The lyrics are once again all over the place, it is the song’s energy that makes it tick. Given the soundtrack’s general light heartedness, the darkness of the instrumental theme song comes as a surprise. Mela: The Bank Chor Theme is composed by Shrikanth Sriram (more famous by his stage name Shri, British Asian multi-instrumentalist who has been associated with Badmarsh & Shri and his solo act Shrilektric among others; you might have noticed him in Dewarists Season 1, employing a violin bow on a fretless bass guitar). Passable listen; the track does not have enough variation to justify its length of over five and a half minutes.
Bank Chor. Random, mindless, fun soundtrack. Which is pretty much what the movie promises to be as well.
Music Aloud Rating: 2.5/5
Top Recos: Tashreef, Jai Baba Bank Chor, Hum Hain Bank Chor
This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.
