Songs and complete credits at the end.
Vishal Shekhar’s (and Mikey McCleary’s; he is credited as music producer/arranger/instrumentalist for the soundtrack) European-flavoured melody and arrangement take you on a romantic ride through the streets of beautiful Paris in Labon Ka Kaarobaar. Also adding to the song’s charm is the video that was released alongside the song, depicting a lot of lovers engaged in, well, Labon Ka Karobaar. Papon is impeccable in his rendition of Jaideep Sahni’s well-penned words amidst the glorious violins and keys. The French musical elements carry on into Je T’aime, this time it is a jazz-ish feel that the composers opt for. Once again the melody and the rich orchestration are bound to win you over, as is Vishal Dadlani and Sunidhi Chauhan’s superlative effort behind the mic. Sort of a misnomer the song’s title though, the song actually goes Ne Dis Jamais Je T’aime which translates to Never Say I Love You. Arijit Singh and Caralisa Monteiro (singing the French portions) confidently handle Nashe Si Chadh Gayi, a dance song that is built on an ambient backdrop reminiscent of Lean On (I seem to hear that format everywhere these days!). While the song’s arrangement is bound to keep you grooving in spite of the familiarity, something about Sahni’s heavy Punjabi lyrics doesn’t sit quite well with the song’s contemporary sound. That said, the folk remix segment in the second interlude is a nice touch from the composers.
You and Me doesn’t have much by way of a melody, but Vishal, Shekhar and Mikey manage to fluff it up considerably with the happy upbeat things (love the ukulele and double bass). Rachel Varghese and Nikhil D’Souza are the stars of the song however, both do an incredibly sprightly job on their part. The title song Ude Dil Befikre has pretty much only Benny Dayal’s ever-infectious energy going for it (Sophie Choudry supplies the French backing vocals), everything else in the Arabic-flavoured track is run of the mill. Khulke Dulke too is of the tried and tested variety, in this case belonging to the “celebratory Punjabi songs” category. It works better than the title song though; the arrangement is definitely more interesting, highlighted by Kishore Sodha’s frenetic trumpet solos. Being dab hands at the genre, Gippy Grewal and Harshdeep Kaur have little trouble delivering the song in style. Quite enjoyed Sahni’s Ishq di Bungee usage and the word play around it. The instrumental piece titled Love Is A Dare is an attempt at bringing together interesting bits from every song of the soundtrack in a medley fashion a la Kiran Kamath, but they only manage to create an unimaginative hotchpotch.
Vishal and Shekhar continue their upward journey this year, Befikre is the best work from the composing duo in 2016. With generous help from Mikey McCleary of course.
This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.
Music Aloud Rating – 3.5/5
Top Recos – Labon Ka Karobar, Je T’aime, Khulke Dulke
Musician Credits
Music: VISHAL & SHEKHAR
Lyrics: JAIDEEP SAHNI
1. NASHE SI CHADH GAYI Arijit Singh
2. UDE DIL BEFIKRE Benny Dayal
3. JE T’AIME Vishal Dadlani, Sunidhi Chauhan
4. YOU and ME Nikhil D’Souza, Rachel Varghese
5. LABON KA KAROBAAR Papon
6. KHULKE DULKE Gippy Grewal, Harshdeep Kaur
7. LOVE IS A DARE Instrumental
RECORDED AT
YRF Studios & Ribbit Studios by Vijay Dayal, Abhishek Gautam & Chinmay Mestry
ALBUM MIXED BY Mikey McCleary & Abhishek Gautam
ADDITIONAL PROGRAMMING Nashe Si Chadh Gayi by Parth Parikh Khulke Dulke by Parth Parikh & Gaurav Godkhindi
MUSIC PRODUCER / ARRANGER / INSTRUMENTALIST Mikey McCleary
MASTERED BY Mikey McCleary
MUSICIANS
Strings – Macedonian Symphonic Orchestra (Conductor – Oleg Kondratenko, Sound Engineer – Giorgi Hristovski, Pro Tools Operator – Atanas Babaleski, Stage Managers – Riste Trajkovski & Evtim Ristov)
Strings Orchestra Co-ordinator – Andrew T Mackay
Rabab – Chintu Singh
Flute – Naveen Kumar, Shirish Malhotra
Trumpet – Kishore Sodha
Saxophone & Clarinet – Shirish Malhotra
Guitars, Bass, Ukelele, Mandolin, Melodica & Keyboards – Mikey McCleary
FRENCH VOCALS –
Nashe Si Chadh Gayi: Caralisa Monteiro
Ude Dil Befikre: Sophie Choudry
BACKING VOCALS –
Khulke Dulke: Vishal Dadlani, Kunal Ganjawala, Ankur Tewari
Love Is A Dare: Rachel Varghese, Sophie Choudry
