This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.
Songs and credits at the end.
Lyrics for dubbed songs can often be tricky – followers of A R Rahman’s music are most likely to resonate with this sentiment; I have seen so many instances of people going back to a song in a language they don’t understand, in lieu of a dubbed version of the song in their own language. I imagine a similar situation arising with Pehli Baar, the Dhadak equivalent of Yad Lagla. It is not that Amitabh Bhattacharya’s lines are terrible, but they still make for an awkward fit in a song where composers Ajay Atul retain everything else from the original version, down to the humming cameo by Shreya Ghoshal. The lyrical fit is not much of an issue with the other reused piece of the album, the boisterous dance track that turned out to be the biggest hit from Sairat – Zingaat (the punchy title phrase is retained). Once again, everything except Bhattacharya’s lines remains the same – composers handle the vocals as effectively as they did in Marathi. I have never been a huge fan of the track (and I know I am part of a very small minority) owing to its tempo though, and my feelings are largely the same for the Hindi Zingaat too.
It is composer Ajay Gogavale’s seeming insistence at featuring his voice in every song of the soundtrack that presents a minor blip in the otherwise well-orchestrated Vaara Re. The singing is quite good, to be fair to Gogavale, but it might have sounded better in some other voice. Some really nice touches by the composers in the backdrop – like the sitar phrases that open and close the song, and the flute and chorus that appear in the more tender moments – contribute majorly to the song’s charm. Though I did not appreciate it as much when it came out, the song I am now absolutely addicted to is the movie’s title song. As is the case with most of Ajay Atul’s best tracks, this one is too is laid over a stunning fabric of orchestral strings – especially love the fact that the song is almost entirely devoid of any percussion, accentuating the prominence of violins. Gogavale and Shreya Ghoshal’s delivery of the haunting melody is equally spectacular.
Dhadak. Ajay Atul’s work rates a tad lower than their own music for the Marathi original, but this still rates as a pretty solid effort in itself.
Music Aloud Rating: 3.5/5
Top Recos: Dhadak, Vaara Re, Zingaat
