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BizAsia Music Review: ‘Dilwale’

The best romantic pairing of the modern era of Bollywood of Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol is back on screen with ��Dilwale�۪. After a gap of five years since ��We Are Family�۪ (2010), Kajol will be seen back on screen with her partner in love that made ��Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge�۪ (1995) one of the most romantic films in the history of Bollywood and celebrating its 20th anniversary. The brain child of director Rohit Shetty, the film also stars Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon in the supporting roles of this film that looking at the trailer does not look anything like what a ‘DDLJ’ was. This looks closer to Shetty�۪s ��Chennai Express�۪ (2013) in the first feelers of the film. The music of ‘Dilwale’ has been handed over to Pritam with Amitabh Bhattacharya behind the lyrics. Is it right to expect for ��Dilwale�۪ to be compared to ‘DDLJ’? Considering ��Dilwale�۪ has been promoted on the back of ��DDLJ�۪ from the onset, producers might want this film to share that scale and limelight and thus the pressure would be high on Pritam to deliver subsequent hits with every song on this soundtrack.

Music Review: 'Dilwale'
Music Review: ‘Dilwale’

The album starts with Gerua that has already been consistently climbing the charts around the globe and doing the rounds on TV screens with its amazing filming locations. This is the next level up from Suraj Hua Madham in the cinematography and direction aspects. It is great to see Shetty can deliver a romantic song to this extreme level as well. But coming back to the music, Pritam sure can deliver a fantastic romantic song and Gerua is no less. Starting with some amazing pipes ranging from Scottish Bagpipes to flutes, this song is very opulent with great melodic vibes to it thanks to the soft instrumentation and simple arrangement. A very Bollywood Dholki and Tabla beat plays a nice base to the song and carries the voice of Arijit Singh and Antara Mitra nicely to give them a gorgeous vocal depth that amplifies the romance in the lyrics. Arijit�۪s high notes are perfect while Antara maintains a very nice tone throughout with Arijit doing all the leading. It would have been good to hear more of Antara but overall the current balance sounds good. With the pressure of the iconic songs that the leading couple have delivered on screen over the ages, Bhattacharya surely delivers on the challenge and delivers lyrics that are on par with their previous hits. Beautiful, heartfelt and truly describes the colour of love ��� red = Gerua. Great song!

The cool urban party song of the album designed for Varun Dhawan�۪s dancing capabilities and personality, Manma Emotion Jaage is a decent song to listen to but nothing extraordinary. One has heard much better work from the Pritam camp when it comes to delivering songs in this genre. But this song sure is cool and some good music programming. There is too much happening on the chorus but apart from the music if we focus on the vocals of Amit Mishra then it is a lot more fun and charismatic. Rap by Anushka Manchanda is very exciting as well while the female lead liner delivered by Antara Mitra with tons of effects on it just sounds wrong and out of place trying too hard. Lyrics are quite a contrast to the earlier song and have a contrast of being really rural for the very urban music composition. They would thus appeal to the masses and enjoy decent success and airplay.

Janam Janam in the voice of Arijit Singh and Antara Mitra again is yet another romantic number that has a full orchestra making this a grand Broadway style of production. The melody does not sound completely unique but combined with the arrangement and lyrics this song tries to be different and succeeds at it. This is a song that can be heard as the track on one of the most passionate ballroom performances and it thus just works in bringing something different to the album. Part of the credit is to the massive range that Arijit delivers on the vocals where he goes from the low to the high in a matter of successive words. His precision on the top notes is worthy of some praise. Antara has a really small role in the song but does well at it. The real hero are the lyrics by Bhattacharya whose poetry has a gradual flow to it that builds not just in the play of words but also the emotion.

Varun Dhawan, Kriti Sanon - Dilwale 340x

Tukur Tukur is yet another song with Arijit Singh going solo and is the funny element song of the film. It has a bit of cute romance to it as the guys chase the girls trying to get a yes out of them as the tease builds on. With all four stars of the film in this song, the video should be packed with some masti and cute choreography to this Goanese musical composition. The simplicity of the lyrics makes this the most easily hummable tune on the album which also has a composition that is very addictive and sticks in your head. The lyrics have a contrast of irony to them where he gets a positive and a cut negative to it in the same sentence to describe the excitement of romance. Arijit throws in some Remo style Goanese rap in as well to bring more excitement to this song. Overall this is a cute and fun song that has been kept simple and delivers the task of being memorable.

Seems Arijit is ruling this album going from one song to the next with yet another solo called Daayre. A very unique composition from Pritam that has a bit of jazz to it with a mix of Bollywood, this song is very distinctive. Arijit�۪s soft rock-ish voice brings in a different texture and adds a refreshing feel to the song. For a sad song the music works complementing it with a happy jazz piano and deep bass to it. Lyrics are simply amazing and very sophisticated. Their depth spark different emotions and thus deliver a very strong song that might not be a commercially leading song but is definitely not one to be missed as it has over a minute long outro at the end with Arijit�۪s vocal scatting creating a different ambience as the music builds to a climatic end.

We get to hear two different voices with Benny Dayal and Kanika Kapoor next on Premika that is a proper Spanish party song. Not to the authenticity or calibre of a Senorita but this truly is a cheesy young romantic number. The Spanish guitar work is excellent on a very high up-tempo beat for a Spanish composition. Vocals from both the singers are disappointing as the song does not allow them much scope to deliver anything exciting. Benny sounds decent in his usual spirits while Pritam allows a different aspect of Kanika�۪s voice to be shared with the world where she is not a crude seductress even though if it is clearly with tons of effects and processing on them. Other than the Latino music blend this is a plain average song with very average lyrics.

SRK & Kajol in 'Dilwale'

DJ Chetas along with Arijit delivers the Theme of Dilwale next deep flutes and soft Mandolin�۪s leading the way into a high energy electronic trance themed party. The clear beats and the excellent use of the melody of the theme music is simply worth a salute to DJ Chetas. This is purely a good remix that keeps the main elements of the music intact and uses the full potential of the composition to get the party beats into to create a great club tune that is originally missing in the lead songs of the album.

FINAL WORD

If one compares the music of ��Dilwale�۪ to previous Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol films (which is bound to happen to some level) then this soundtrack would clearly not compare to the music maestros of the 90s but to be fair this album deserves to be considered individually at which this album does really well. Pritam does not disappoint and delivers a strong commercial soundtrack true to the film’s scale and cast. The album is not as amazing as expected but each song is different and delivers good value of the overall listening experience. Right from Goanese to Latino and Jazz musical influences, Pritam does a good job in creating good mash ups with a lot of genre variety in the alubm. Arijit is the clear lead and hero of the album with five of the seven songs to his credit which is also the deficiency of the album with not much female talent on the album. Kudos to Amitabh Bhattacharya for lyrics that are consistently good throughout on majority songs. Gerua and Daayre are the best songs on the soundtrack with Janam Janam, Tukur Tukur and Manma Emotion Jaage are worth a listen as well. This album does not have the calibre to be an epic timeless classic but it surely will have short-lived success while the film rules the cinemas.

BizAsia Showbiz Rating ��� 8/10