Music Review: ‘Hasee Toh Phasee’
Karan Johar and Anurag Kashyap come together in 2014 to produce ��Hasee Toh Phasee�۪ ��for Vinil Mathew�۪s directorial debut starring the new crop of Bollywood stars including Parineeti Chopra and Sidharth Malhotra in the lead roles. The new age rom-com seems fun in the trailers in the typical Dharma Productions style of movies. Chopra seems ready to steal the show with this film as the trailers ooze with her talent. The fun and romance of the movie will come to life with the musical genius of Vishal-Shekhar reeling in the success of ��Chennai Express�۪ (2013) and ��Gori Tere Pyaar Mein�۪ (2013). The romantic songs of the film should have an extra layer of love with the seriously talented Amitabh Bhattacharya and Kumaar writing the lyrics of the six song soundtrack. Although the movie is not a big budget hyped project, the music should be able to deliver considering the talent involved behind the scenes on this project.
Starting with the Punjabi Wedding Song the musical duo of Vishal-Shekhar reinforce their dominance at the start of the year when it comes to Delhi-style wedding song. After the super success of Tooh from ��Gori Tere Pyaar Mein�۪ this could be the next big thing although not that good. In the voices of the versatility queen Sunidhi Chauhan along with Benny Dayal the song ticks all the boxes for a fun Punjabi wedding song in sync with its lyrics written by Amitabh Bhattacharya. The composition has very interesting bridge parts but it doesn�۪t really make you crazy as to what the lyrics say but it still delivers and will surely be successful in the tail end of the wedding season in India. This is definitely a good start to the album but not the best.
Shake It Like Shammi in the voices of Vishal and Benny Dayal has an interesting start with a retro 60s style drums from the ��Teesri Manzil�۪ (1966) with the Boss R.D. Burman�۪s composition flavour merged into the 2014 music style by Vishal-Shekhar. However, unfortunately the song is neither here or there and fails to excite those ear drums. The video with Siddharth do a Shammi could possibly do the trick for this song with the film releases. Lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya with bits of rap don�۪t really work while the average vocal performances and musical composition with trumpets, drums and ha-ha-ha Shammi style is a poor attempt at Shammi Kapoor�۪s classic style.
Vishal Dadlani & Shreya Ghoshal voice Drama Queen that sounds like an apt song suited well for Parineeti Chopra�۪s role in the movie. The fun song has another layer of fun added to it with Shreya�۪s excellent delivery of the song. Lyrics by Amitabh are great as well but unfortunately even after repeated listens of the song the arrangement of the song doesn�۪t seem to grow. The composition is weak by Vishal-Shekhar for a song that could have delivered a hit but the rock meets desi thumka style of melody of the song doesn�۪t seem to work too well bringing the whole song down and seems trying too hard to be the club song of the album. Nonetheless this song should enjoy reasonable success on TV and Radio once the film releases.
Manchala is finally a really good song forth down in the CD with the Sufi brilliant voice of Shafqat Amanat Ali accompanied by Nupur Pant. The downhearted feel of the song has some excellent musical work by the musical duo with amazing instrumentation. The merging of deep bass guitar with rock drums and mouth organ creates perfect harmony and depth in the song that matches Ali�۪s voice effortlessly. The strength of Amitabh for writing lyrics of such songs really pays off with Manchala showing clear potential to tug on the heart strings to become a hit.
Another beautiful song written by Amitabh on the romantic front is Zehnaseeb delivered in the voices of Shekhar and Tamil singer Chinmayi Sripada who delivered magic for Vishal-Shekhar with Titli in ��Chennai Express�۪. She does an equally brilliant job in this song complementing Shekhar�۪s voice creating a soulful romantic song that picks up in tempo after the intro. The Karnatic style music bridges bring the South Indian flavour of music even more to this song merging it with the Urdu words of the song creating a unique blend not heard before in Bollywood. A good song to listen to!
The final number on the album Ishq Bulaava is yet another romantic song on the album this time with the brilliant new voice of Sanam Puri heard on Dhat Teri Ki in ��Gori Tere Pyaar Mein�۪ along with Shipra Goyal. He showcases his vocal depth and capabilities with this song written by Kumaar. With due credit to him as his vocals are just great, the Punjabi lyrics by Kumaar steal the show along with the classically sound composition by Vishal-Shekhar. The song just has a really good vibe and can become the niche tune this Valentine’s. The accordion solo for the first bridge along with flutes is something worth listening to.
FINAL WORD
With a perfect balance of three romantic and three party tunes the formula of Vishal-Shekhar is very clear to give the listeners what works with them. The romantic songs are the clear winners on the album with the brilliance of Amitabh Bhattacharya and Kumaar as this is where they are their best. Vocals of Chinmayi on Zehnaseeb and Shafqat on Manchala are worth listening to while Sunidhi, Shreya and Sanam Puri do a great job as well on the other songs. Being a rom-com the OST has a right mix of romantic and fun songs but unfortunately none fantastic enough to be a superhit on radio and TV music channels. Instead of the music changing the fate of the film by drawing audiences to the cinema it will have to be the other way around where the chemistry of Chopra and Malhotra will have to do the job of adding that extra spart to the songs to get them to work since all compositions are just slightly above the average mark. ��Hasee Toh Phasee�۪ OST is a good album worth listening to but just a few times.
BizAsia Showbiz rating: 6.5/10
