Songs and credits at the end.
Six years after it found a quirky makeover at the hands of Mikey McCleary, Laxmikant Pyarelal’s Hawa Hawai gets another revisit from present day remix man Tanishk Bagchi. Though this is a more conventional remix relatively, Hawa Hawai 2.0 (should have been numbered 3.0, ideally) is a pretty entertaining effort from the man – it helps that he retains Kavita Krishnamurthy’s vocals (and laces it with Shashaa Tirupathi’s voice) and throws in a lot of horns, as was the case in the original song, thereby maintaining the overall jollity at the same level. Even the rap (thankfully not by the usual folk) is well placed. The other remix of the album comes from Guru Randhawa and Rajat Nagpal – Ban Ja Rani that is take on Randhawa and Haji Springer’s 2016 single Tu Meri Rani. Nothing special going on here (or in the original), a fluffy formulaic tune with middling arrangement and jarringly processed vocals.
Coming back to Tanishk Bagchi, the composer also gets an original song, written by his frequent partner Vayu Shrivastava. And it is indeed Vayu’s Hinglish lyrics that are the soul of the light hearted Manva Likes To Fly that Bagchi sets to a wacky electronic based arrangement. Shalmali Kholgade too is in her elements rendering the song; that brief switch to the lower register is a neat touch. Amartya “Bobo” Rahut’s Farrata is another short musical burst of energy (Rahut was also the composer for Tu Hai Mera Sunday that came out last month; good to see the man active in the industry again) delivered well by Armaan Mallik and the kids’ chorus. The soundtrack’s best song comes from indie musician Santanu Ghatak – the beautiful folksy melody Rafu that is also written by Ghatak himself (on an aside, nice to see the number of composer-lyricists on the rise in recent times); man proves to be a dab hand at both trades. The song, given a mellow, unplugged-like treatment (guitars by Anup Satam), is sung superbly by Ronkini Gupta (who has previously done some splendid singing in Sagar Desai’s Ankhon Dekhi).
Tumhari Sulu. Consistently light and engaging soundtrack, except for the one Punjabi song.
Music Aloud Rating: 3/5
Top Recos: Rafu, Manva Likes To Fly, Farrata
This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.
Musician Credits
1. Song – Ban Ja Rani
Vocals And Lyrics – Guru Randhawa
Music – Guru Randhawa, Rajat Nagpal
Music Label: T-Series
Original Music – Haji Springer
Re-Arranging, Programming And Production – Aditya Dev
Mixing And Mastering – Shadab Rayeen
2. Song – Hawa Hawai 2.0
Singers – Kavita Krishnamurthy, Shashaa Tirupati
Re-Creation And Programming – Tanishk Bagchi
Lyrics – Javed Akhtar
Music Label: T-Series
Original Music – Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Guitars – Nanda Kumar
Additionals – Ganesh Waghela, Krishna Kishore
Mixing And Mastering – Eric Pillai (Future Sound Of Bombay)
Mix Assistant Engineers – Michael Edwin Pillai, Lucky
3. Song – Manva Likes To Fly
Singer – Shalmali Kholgade
Music – Tanishk Bagchi
Lyrics – Vayu
Music Label: T-Series
Music Programmed By Tanishk Bagchi
Additional Sounds By Ganesh Waghela, Krishna Kishore
Mixing And Mastering – Eric Pillai (Future Sound Of Bombay)
Mix Assistant Engineers – Michael Edwin Pillai, Lucky
4. Song – Farrata
Singer – Armaan Malik, Adityan
Additional Vocals – Dev Arijit, Tushar Joshi
Music – Amartya Rahut “Bobo”
Lyrics – Siddhant Kaushal
Music Label: T-Series
Guitar/Ukulele/Charango – Appai Prachutosh Bhowmik
Production – Amartya Rahut “Bobo”, Subhadeep Mitra
Recording – Rubber Soul Studio
Mixing and Mastering – Subhadeep Mitra
5. Song – Rafu
Vocals – Ronkini Gupta
Music And Lyrics – Santanu Ghatak
Music Label: T-Series
Guitars And Programming- Anup Satam
Recording – Chakir Hussain At Paresh Music Studios
Mixing – Vijay Dayal
Mastering- David Whelan
