Songs and musician credits at the end.
This review first appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Hindu.
While the central hook of guest composer Tanishk Bagchi’s solo offering shares its title with Naushad – Tanveer Naqvi – Noor Jehan’s 1946 classic, Jawaan Hai Mohabbat turns out to be an original composition, written by Irshad Kamil (who incidentally is the only lyricist for the soundtrack, though there are two composers). A decent song, that is more Sunidhi Chauhan’s show than the composer’s. While Bagchi gets an original song to do, it is lead composer Amit Trivedi who is given the job of recreating an old piece. The song is Yeh Jo Halka Halka, the Nusrat song that has once already been “adapted” into Bollywood, as Chale Jaise Hawaayein. The tune aside of the original title refrain remains Trivedi’s own, to his credit, but coming from a man who has done a couple of pretty imaginative adaptations in the past, this one comes across as pretty ordinary. Once again it is the singing (Sunidhi Chauhan and Divya Kumar) that props up the song at least marginally.
Tere Jaisa Tu Hai is the only song in the soundtrack that features Kishore Sodha’s trumpet, something that I was hoping to hear a lot of throughout the album, given the promos prominently depicted Anil Kapoor as being a trumpeter. And it is indeed Sodha’s work that is the highlight of the inspirational piece, particularly ruling the soaring segments. The rock-infused song otherwise reminds of Trivedi’s older songs of the kind, but passes muster owing largely to the earlier-mentioned aspect. Monali Thakur manages to stand her ground negotiating the high notes the song touches at multiple points. Thakur sounds much more in her elements singing the chirpy folk song Fu Bai Fu that is built around movie song and quote references (Kamil slyly references one of his own with Heer Hui Sad Usey Lag Gayi Loo). I assume the Fu Bai Fu refrain comes from a folk piece (the tune reminds me of the chorus bit from Hum Ko Aaj Kal Hai). Amit Trivedi himself gets behind the mic for Achche Din, a song that once again is awash with déjà vu inducing elements, but has a tenderness that appeals. And the song’s arrangement has one key redeeming aspect in the form of Inapakurti D Rao’s clarinet that beautifully shadows the singing almost throughout the song.
In terms of quantity, 2018 is the busiest year that Amit Trivedi has ever had. However, in terms of musical quality, the man is going through not so achche din right now. I really hope he gets out of this slump soon.
Music Aloud Rating: 2.5/5
Top Recos: Tere Jaisa Tu Hai, Achche Din, Jawaan Hai Mohabbat
Musician Credits
Music by: Amit Trivedi, Tanishk Bagchi
Lyrics: Irshad Kamil
Singers:
Mohabbat: Sunidhi Chauhan
Fu Bai Fu: Monali Thakur
Tere Jaisa: Monali Thakur
Achche Din: Amit Trivedi
Halka Halka: Sunidhi Chauhan, Divya Kumar
Musicians:
Programmed by: Amit Trivedi, Gourab Dutta, Vineeth Jayan, Saurabh Lokhande
Drums: Jai Row Kavi
Percussion: Sanket Naik
Bass guitar: Ardeshir Mistry
Guitar: Warren Mendonsa
Mandolin, Saz, Bouzouki: Tapas Roy
Trumpet: Kishore Sodha
Clarinet & Flute: Inapakurti D Rao
Backing vocals: Manas Madhav Bhagwat , Oushnik Majumdar, Meghna Mishra & Saloni Desai
Crew:
Produced and Arranged By: Amit Trivedi
Recording Studio: A T Stuios and YRF Studios – Mumbai
Recording Engineers A T Studios: Abhishek Sortey & Urmila Sutar assisted by Firoz Shaikh
Recording Engineers YRF Studios: Shantanu Hudlikar assisted by Manasi Tare
Mixed and Mastered by: Shadab Rayeen, A T Studios & New Edge – Mumbai assisted by Abhishek Sortey & Dhananjay Khapekar
Executive Producer A T Studios: Krutee Trivedi
Head of Production A T Studios: Aashish Narula
