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Music Review: ‘Jolly LLB 2’

After Arshad Warsi delivered a small time honest lawyers role in ‘Jolly L.L.B’ (2013), director Subhash Kapoor has gone a step forward to get the title into the A-list by casting Akshay Kumar in ‘Jolly LLB 2’. With a host of supporting cast with some really good actors, the trailer of the film seems quite exciting and fun in this second instalment of what was a mediocre first film. Perhaps it might be second time lucky, especially with Kumar taking the lead role here. The 2013 original film had nothing exciting on the music front and thus the expectations are rather mediocre from this four song album with no lead music composer or lyricist. The fun concept of the film with a courtroom setting doesn’t give the story a lot of scope for music too.

Starting with <em>Go Pagal</em> the fun nature of the film is quite evident. The setting of the song is perhaps the most favourable part of the song with the festival of Holi being the main theme which fits in perfectly around the release timing of the film giving it enough time to gain popularity. An uptempo electronic party song, the music is a little too far ahead for a Holi song which works better on a street music style with all its crudeness. Ex-RDB boy Manj Musik &amp; Nilesh Patel seem to have done a good job on the composition but got it a little wrong on its instrumentation for a Holi song. Although it has the energy and fun aspects it fails to impress overall to become an iconic Holi song. His wife Nindy Kaur is rather flat as she takes on the vocals with rapper Raftaar doing a great job on the male vocals. Lyrics by Manj &amp; Raftaar are the only bit that have the authenticity for a Holi song with an extra element of fun to them. Overall the song is a good party tune but not very impressive or memorable.

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<em>Bawara Mann</em> is a very simple but lovely romantic song. Featuring the voices of Jubin Nautiyal and Neeti Mohan, the song has a good balance of emotions and cuteness to it. Nautiyal’s lyrics are quite refreshing to hear with his soft huskiness delivered well. Mohan is the best really and her vocal section has a lot of charisma to it. Lyrics by Junaid Wasi use a more traditional word treatment that is interesting to hear with a modern composition by Chirantan Bhatt. The soft subtle instruments used are very well arranged and give it a very modern-day romantic sound. But considering the nature of the film the success of this song is pretty much going to be dependent on the visual execution and success of the film.

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Meet Bros compose and sing the next song <em>Jolly Good Fellow</em> written by Shabbir Ahmed. As a complete character song for the leading man this song is a really old skool composition that has been heard a million times before. The poetic rhyme is really cheesy and the instrumentation is very average. Meet Bros try to make it a song fit for the masses which it might work for but as a commercial song it just doesn’t work at any level. The vocals and lyrics are both too vanilla with no exciting twists and turns to it. Overall the song is way too cheesy to impress anyone in the long run.

The album finishes to a serious and spiritual number that is very comforting to hear a song. <em>O Re Rangreza</em> is a very traditional Qawaali composed in the traditional style and conducted with all core Indian instruments by Vishal Khurana. The harmonium and dholki work is really good and more so they are recorded beautifully with some good Tabla work as well. The best instrument on the song are the amazing high pitch pipes of Sukhwinder Singh who delivers the vocal to a perfection. The strength and perfection in his every note is astounding. The sad and low point in life lyrics by Junaid Wasi are passionate and very humble for a man at a low point in life seeking blessings to get to a better place in life. It is very situational to the film and thus it doesn’t have the mettle to go a long way in getting success on the airplays.

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<strong>FINAL WORD</strong>

As expected the music album of ‘Jolly LLB 2’ ranges between average to rather disappointing. With no single lead as a composer the music changes quite drastically in each of the 4 songs. They all have different styles in execution and vary by miles in their style and quality of music. The OST does have a range of genres but none of the songs really impress or stand out. Junaid Wasi’s lyrics are perhaps the only impressive element on the album with two songs to his credit. Even with the big names of Meet Bros and Manj Musik the melodies are rather boring and clichéd. Jubin Nautiyal and Neeti Mohan deliver the best vocals on <em>Bawara Mann</em> with Sukhwinder Singh doing a great job on <em>O Re Rangreza</em>. Perhaps having <em>Go Pagal</em> as a Holi festive song might help this album sail through till summer but overall the album has nothing worth talking about or listening to for that matter.

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<strong>Overall Rating – 5/10</strong>