BizAsia Music Review: ‘Hate Story 3’

Producer Bhushan Kumar is back with director Vishal Pandya for yet another ��Hate Story 3�۪ with everything that goes with it ranging from super-hot toned bodies to a thrilling storyline to a few good steamy romantic songs as well. Starring Zarine Khan, small screen heartthrob Karan Singh Grover and ��3 Idiots�۪ (2009) superstar Sharman Joshi in a totally different setup than his usual character roles, ��Hate Story 3�۪ looks like another raunchy film for a discerning audience. With a very short album combining the musical work of item number producers Meet Bros, romantic genius of Amaal Mallik and newcomer Baman the music of ��Hate Story 3�۪ has already been doing the rounds on TV channels. With a number of lyricists collaborating on the album, this soundtrack is expected to be a mix bag of handpicked songs by the director.

Amaal Mallik starts off the album with his own adaptation of the beautiful old skool classic Tumhe Apna Banane Ka from ��Sadak�۪ (1991). He revitalises the classic Nadeem-Shravan composition making it sound recent and perfect for a 2015 romantic lounge song. The soothing ambient vibes are what one could easily hope to hear on a Buddha Bar type of album to the calibre of composers like Karunesh with deep bass, cool sax and soft keys, flutes and strings. Lyricist Rashmi Virag does something different here trying to stay away from the original Sameer lyrics and does well making the sound lyrically complete in its own right keeping it deeply emotional and sensuous but also simple and sing-able. What stands out most are the soft vocals of Neeti Mohan and Armaan Malik who keep their vocals tied into a very nice control as if whispering to each other within the sheets but gorgeously clear and articulate. If this would have been a purely original song then it would be a piece of genius but considering the trend of ���inspired music�۝, this surely is a good one to listen to.

Tu Isaq Mera is the work of what I call ��new-age item number�۪ hit-makers Meet Bros who try to take sensuality to a different level in a slow cabaret style with this composition. A very deep bass rules this song with a nice urban RnB vibe using the rap of Earl Edgar with a very slow pop vocal of Neha Kakkar. The bridge of the song is an interesting mix of instruments that is very classy considering the provocative nature of the song that leads to a good contrasting mix with sexy vocals and lyrics by Kumaar. The music duo even throw in a bit of Arabic vibe as well in the second half to increase the heat quotient of the song. This song is surely a good job overall but lacks a punch to make it to the charts like their other work.

New music director Baman directs Armaan Malik next on a song called Wajah Tum Ho that is another deeply romantic number that surely is worth a listen thanks to the vocal rendition but mostly for the amazing poetic lyrics by Manoj Muntashir. The start of the song is simply spell bounding and moving thanks to the deep vocals by Malik. The slow start picks up to go up-tempo giving it a different touch than the usual slow romantic songs or a fast party song. The keyboard work and programming on this song with a touch of jazz is worth some appreciation. The bridge instrumentation is not too impressive and sounds a bit odd also the vocal range sounds a bit flat even at the high points that is disappointing overall. Nonetheless, worth a listen and a great song for his first one in Bollywood for Baman.

Another Meet Bros composition Neendein Khul Jaati Hain is the party song on the album in the voices of party boy Mika Singh and party girl Kanika Kapoor. Even with such a thrilling combo of artists with a hot sexy club video this song has failed to make a mark and climb any chart or garner any airplay at all in any part of the world. That is down to very boring vocals by Mika and Kanika without going to their true element.. but even more so due to a composition that seems to have been heard a number of times in Bollywood before played to a repetitive beat pattern . Shabbir Ahmed�۪s lyrics are not too exciting either that will keep this song off any DJ�۪s playlist that are neither street crude nor party and club style with an oomph. Disappointing to say the least.

Love to Hate You is the voice of Shivranjani Singh and music of Amaal Mallik and lyrics of Shabbir Ahmed is so laden with deep bass that it gives a hard-core DrumNBass track a run for its money. This is truly something not heard in a Bollywood soundtrack before. The vocal effects, synth textures and programming, electronic drum arrangements create a scene of a fast visual thriller without even seeing it thereby implying this is a background score for the real pacey scenes in the movie. Singh�۪s vocals are kinda haunting in a way but extremely powerful considering the nature of the song. This song is far from what commercial Bollywood sounds like and so don�۪t expect to hear it anywhere else except the film and the album themselves��_ a sane commercial radio or TV channel won�۪t even touch it! But kudos to Amaal for the brave electronic work on this song.

Tu Isaq Mera (Psycho-Love Mix) is yet another deeply electronic song but somewhat annoying remix of the original. This remix tries so hard to impress that clearly doesn�۪t. The trance feel is overdone and simply doesn�۪t work for the vocal and compositional style of the song.

Wajah Tum Ho (Zeeshan Version) is simply another vocal version of newcomer Zeeshan who sounds pure in this soft musically stripped down version of Baman�۪s composition. His vocal style is rather simplistic and that of a common man that is refreshing to hear with no vocal style or effect processing. Musically, Baman keeps it rather basic with the use of piano and mouth organs to give it a softer touch and let the vocals lead. The original still sounds commercially better but this not a bad version at all.

FINAL WORD

The soundtrack of ��Hate Story 3�۪ as expected has tons of love and sensuality to it right from its lyrics, to the musical compositions to the very clean humane sounding vocals in every song. Lyrics by Manoj Muntashir and Rashmi Viraj are the real heroes of the album on Wajah Tum Ho and Tumhe Apna Banane Ka. Amaal Mallik leads the album well while newcomer Baman does a fairly good job impressing with his first only song on this album. Although Meet Bros have more songs on the album but none impress or stand out even with names including Mika, Kanika and Neha Kakkar featuring on their songs. Neeti Mohan & Armaan Malik are the real vocal stars of the album and do a really fine job on Tumhe Apna Banane Ka. Overall the album is passionate and deeply sensuous accompanied with very provocative shots in the videos. The videos might not be very classy but some songs are purely in the audio domain and thus worth listening to. There are no superstar songs on the album which limits it to a very short shelf life.

BizAsia Showbiz Rating ��� 7/10