Songs at the end of the review.
Like writer-director Navjot Gulati’s last movie RunningShaadi.com, Jai Mummy Di‘s multi-composer lineup too features multiple names not seen in Bollywood that often. Unlike Running Shaadi, however, Jai Mummy Di’s soundtrack features recreations – two of them. First of the two, Lamborghini, is done by Meet Bros – interestingly the album credits have no mention of The Doorbeen who did the 2018 smash hit Lamberghini. While I imagine this is owing to the fact that the tune itself is a traditional one (Chitta Kukkad), that it is titled Lamborghini has got to have something to do with the Doorbeen track? Either way, I did end up mentally comparing the two songs, and in that comparison the Jai Mummy Di version comes off the inferior one – not at all helped by the tinny voice of Neha Kakkar. The other recreation comes from Tanishk Bagchi. Mummy Nu Pasand is a 2017 song composed by Sukh-E Muszical Doctorz, set to the Shape of You template and hence catchy. Bagchi does the smart thing of retaining the original singer here, Sunanda Sharma. I am not sure if it is just me, but Mika Singh sounds a bit younger in Ishq Da Band, composed by debutant (I assume) Gaurav Chatterji. Enjoyable dance track, this, I quite liked the folk-electronic melange forming the backdrop. Parag Chhabra composes the title song that has some fun lyrics from Shellee, but works best as part of the song video, not as effective on its own. Really glad that he chose to include Devender Pal Singh among the singers though (Nikhita Gandhi, Vivek Hariharan and Chhabra himself, the others), wish his melodic passage were longer.
Two other new names share the composing credits for Ajaa Ajaa, Rishi-Siddharth. And the duo fashion an effervescent rock and roll-styled piece on top of the Punjabi base, while Divya Kumar matches the energy levels behind the mic. It is Amartya “Bobo” Rahut who delivers the album’s best songs though. Dariyaganj is a lovely melodic piece that has a beautifully soothing guitar rhythm backing it (feels almost bossa nova). Written by Siddhant Kaushal, the song appears in two versions – first a duet by Arijit Singh and Dhvani Bhanushali, and the second a solo act by Bhanushali. And Manney Ignore Kar Rahi is a cleverly imagined wacky piece for a somber situation (my go-to reference point for such songs is Saigal Blues). Sung by Amitabh Bhattacharya – whose portfolio is largely comprised of such quirky songs, albeit mostly for Rahut’s ex band mate Amit Trivedi – who handles this as effectively as he has done similar songs in the past.
Much like the movie I had mentioned at the start of the review, Jai Mummy Di too succeeds in producing a fun soundtrack out of some lesser known musicians, and offers much diversity even while incorporating Punjabi elements in pretty much every song.
Music Aloud Rating: 3/5
Top Recos: Dariyaganj, Manney Ignore Kar Rahi, Ajaa Ajaa
