Songs and musician credits at the end.
The only thing missing from the “pragmatic” love song Aaj Se Teri is probably a mention of the Aadhaar card! Kausar Munir’s light-hearted words are absolutely on point throughout the song, even as Amit Trivedi adorns the lines with an incredibly addictive raag bhimplaasi based melody (the raaga also takes your mind back to songs like Bol Na Halke Halke – on a related note, here is a multi-lingual playlist of bhimplaasi based film songs I created on Apple Music a few days back) and a folk-rich orchestration that sees some beautiful use of shehnai (Omkar Dhumal) and mandolin (Tapas Roy). And delivering the song in style is Arijit Singh. The ode to the movie’s protagonist, The Pad Man Song is characterised by another instrument Trivedi has been known to make splendid use of – harmonium (Akhlak Hussain Varsi the man, as usual). Fun song that derives quite a bit of its jollity from Mika Singh’s singing of Munir’s description of Padman’s “supper hero” qualities. The ladies’ chorus backing Mika does a fine job too.
It is in the rest of the soundtrack that the composer increasingly gravitates towards his tried and tested formulae. Sayaani comes with the Navrai Majhi-esque celebratory vibe, salvaged by some good singing from Yashita Sharma, Jonita Gandhi, Yashika Sikka and Rani Kaur. Composer himself gets behind the mic for the dance track Hu Ba Hu that is strictly functional. And Mohit Chauhan leads the best of the three – Saale Sapne. The pop rock base is sure to evoke memories of albums like Udaan in your head, but a few deft touches from the composer prevent the song from getting completely bogged down by familiarity.
Composer Amit Trivedi’s work for Pad Man is more or less propped up by one brilliant melodic piece.
Music Aloud Rating: 3/5
Top Recos: Aaj Se Teri, The Padman Song, Saale Sapne
This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.
Musician Credits
Song – Aaj Se Teri
Singer – Arijit Singh
Backing Vocals – Rajiv Sundaresan & Suhas Sawant
Music – Amit Trivedi
Lyricist – Kausar Munir
Song – The Pad Man Song
Singer – Mika Singh
Additional Vocals – Pragati Joshi , Deepti Rege & Mayuri Kudalkar
Music – Amit Trivedi
Lyricist – Kausar Munir
Song – Hu Ba Hu
Singer – Amit Trivedi
Backing Vocals – Rajiv Sundaresan & Suhas Sawant
Music – Amit Trivedi
Lyricist – Kausar Munir
Song – Saale Sapne
Singer – Mohit Chauhan
Backing Vocals – Rajiv Sundaresan & Suhas Sawant
Music – Amit Trivedi
Lyricist – Kausar Munir
Song – Sayaani
Singers – Yashita Sharma, Jonita Gandhi, Yashika Sikka & Rani Kaur
Backing Vocals – Anita Gandharva, Meghna Mishra & Vaishnavi Mishra
Music – Amit Trivedi
Lyricist – Kausar Munir
Crew Names:-
Produced & Arranged by Amit Trivedi
Recording Engineers A T Studios Mumbai – Abhishek Sortey & Urmila Sutar Assisted by Firoz Shaikh
Mixed by Shadab Rayeen, A T Studios & New Edge – Mumbai Assisted by Abhishek Sortey & Dhananjay Khapekar
Mastered by Donal Whelan, Masteringworld – U.K.
Executive Producer A T Studios – Krutee Trivedi
Head Of Production A T Studios – Aashish Narula
Musician Names:-
Programmed by Amit Trivedi, Gourab Dutta, Vineeth Jayan & Raja Rasaily
Dholak & Percussions – Sanket Naik
Harmonium – Akhlak Hussain Varsi
Mandolin, Rabab, Saz & Bouzouki – Tapas Roy
Shehnai – Omkar Dhumal
