Top header Banner
Top header Banner
Middle top Banner

Music Review: ‘Heropanti 2’

Director Ahmed Khan has moved from the ‘Baaghi’ sequels to now brining the sequel of ‘Heropanti’ (2014) with the soon to release ‘Heropanti 2’. The 2014 original marked the launch of Tiger Shroff into Bollywood and he is a clear favourite to work with Khan in his action extravaganzas so he is back in ‘Heropanti 2’ starring opposite Tara Sutaria as the leading lady and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in a negative shade. The promos are over the top in aspects of the action, clearly the strength of the Khan-Shroff combination with a good mix of romance and drama thrown in. The 2014 original movie had quite a bit of hit music to it and now with a hot combination of Shroff-Sutaria on screen the romantic side of the music should give the director a lot more room to deliver something exciting. A. R. Rahman has been roped in to deliver the music of this new age action-romantic movie. It is great to see Mehboob back to Bollywood and leading the lyrics. He has worked with Rahman on projects like ‘Daud’ (1997) and ‘Yuva’ (2004) to produce some good music so the expectations are pretty high from this project.

The first release is the party number Dafa Kar lead by Rahman himself on the vocals with Hiral Viradia leading the female vocals. The overall vibe of the number is a sexy urban one and the sound is quite unique as one always expects from the genius of Rahman. The keyboard synth in the chorus is pretty sick and creates a very contemporary aura around the song. The slow beat is very nicely developed and has a nice texture to it. The keys and bass programming is pretty amazing and gives it that sexy vibe. The flow of the song is very addictive and sticks well in the head. The overall composition is very smooth making it an easy one to groove to and thus the biggest quality of the song. The vocals at the high end are really well done by Rahman and the consistency throughout in delivery works quite well. Viradia has a unique tone and sounds very sexy suiting Sutaria’s personality on screen. The lyrics are generally average but the chorus is very well written driving a strong hook making it memorable. The Halloween parade execution of the video brings out more of the outdoor party feel of the song rather than a club positioning. Overall this song is quite impressive with a strong grooviness to it thanks to the collaboration of some of the best musicians that Rahman works with including Ranjit Barot on this one making Dafa Kar a must for the summer parties around the world. 4/5

Jalwanuma is the romantic number of the album that shines on the vocal front with Pooja Tiwari delivering a strong classical-styled vocal and the amazing Javed Ali bringing a slight sufi touch to the track too. The two voices blend nicely together and have an aura of pain and emotion to it as it translates in deep love. The lyrics hedge strongly on a good chorus that with its repetition creates a lasting impact while even the stanzas delivered in Tiwari’s voice have a good amount of sentiment to it even though delivered with a sad tonality. The composition is downbeat and sombre but the whole classical execution is quite refreshing compared to the trend of the modern romantic numbers. The instrumentation is basic with Tabla, Dholaks and additional percussions leading the beat with layers of other fab instruments including guitars, keys, Mandolin and even Shehnai giving this song a strong fusion aspect. The opening Mandolin solo is just exquisite! This song sounds very 90s in its feel and the sad tonality is a little disappointing and holds back the song while the overall instrumentation and vocal talent is of high calibre. This is not the best one has heard from Rahman and Mehboob but a decent number. 3.5/5

The next single release is the most interesting one on the album. Miss Hairan is yet another urban party tune and perhaps a better one than Dafa Kar in its cool factor. The melody is a lot stronger here thanks to an uber cool bassline and futuristic techno effects. From DJ record scratches to vocal scatting, there is a lot of material in the programming of this track. The bridge music is an exceptional piece of arrangement with some amazing use of digital bass. The flow of the song is a genius piece of composition making this a very memorable number and easy one to bob along to. But what takes the cake better than the music is the shocker of a vocal delivered by Shroff himself. The man proves that he can do everything, provided he is in the right hands. One can hear loads of effects and vocal processing added in by Rahman but he genuinely makes Shroff sound good, rather great! Considering there is limited range in this RnB styled song and not much emotion or connection required with the lyrics, it is an easy one to start off his singing career. He sounds a lot like singer Karthik who regularly works with Rahman but credit to Shroff for an impressive vocal. Nisa Shetty sounds amazing too as the female lead with a lot of oomph and sas to her vocal. She has a fair amount of vocal to deliver and she compliments Shroff’s vocal well. The lyrics are pretty good too and have a different angle to them than the normal fix of lyrics in club numbers. The choice of words is unique and that really stands out in favour of this song. Even the video is good with a complete florescent and silver bling theme with some great choreography. This is a unique and classy club number and kudos to Rahman for putting this together. 4.5/5

The latest release is shockingly a remake! For Rahman to do a remake it is a little too impossible to believe but yet it is true. Albeit it has been done tastefully and has a lot of uniqueness to it. Whistle Baja 2.0 is a remake of the original in this context was from ‘Heropanti’ (2014) composed by Manj Musik of RDB fame along with rapper Raftaar. There is a lot more new instrumentation here with less lyrics and vocal to make this a performance song. The bridge music is full of exciting percussions, perfect to get Shroff dancing solo with his inspiring moves. The arrangement of the bridge music is pretty cool even though it is not totally out of the box. Within the frame of the original composition, Rahman has done quite a bit to make this standout while blending in with the original whistle theme. There are very limited new lyrics and this is one area where this song could have been improved. The song is front loaded with lyrics and vocals while the second part is more instrumental for a heightened performance aspect. Vocals are by party boy Mika Singh along with Neeti Mohan. Both sound quite average with just a few lines for them to deliver in this short number. There is very little for them to show their real talents and thus the song banks hard on the success of the original. Only the instrumentation and arrangement are new so Rahman does well in the musical department. Overall this could have been a lot better. 3/5

More singles from ‘Heropanti 2’ will be reviewed on this page when they become available.

 

 

 

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.