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Music Review: ‘Judgementall Hai Kya’

From the house of Ekta Kapoor comes a dark psychological comedy called ‘Judgementall Hai Kya’. Directed by Tollywood biggie Prakash Rao Kovelamudi and written by Kanika Dhillion of ‘Manmarziyaan’ (2018) fame, the trailer focuses entirely on two really strong actors – Rajkummar Rao & Kangana Ranaut. The characters suffer from mental issues and seem entangled in a situational comedy. The film should definitely help prove the depth of their acting skills as they play their “mental” characters based around a murder mystery. But with the attitude that Ranaut brings to her roles, there is good amount of room for some stylish music videos. With a song cherry-picking approach director Kovelamudi has brought in songs from various artists including Tanishk Bagchi, Daniel George, Rachit Arora and Arjun Harjai to deliver a short 15-minute music album.

The Wakhra Swag opens this soundtrack delivering a high dose of bling and attitude at the onset. For a remake to be opening the album the tone is quite clear to go after the young masses and let Ranaut’s ‘don’t give a damn’ swag to lead drawing audiences to the cinemas. Tanishk Bagchi is leading this remake of a huge Punjabi number from 2015. He retains a lot of the original lyrics and the original artist Navv Inder leading the vocals while bringing in Lisa Mishra to lead the female vocals who really takes center stage compared to Inder taking over the full song in the original. Considering the female lead in the movie, Mishra does a great job taking over and almost owning the song. Her vocals do have a strong swag quality being sensuous and strong at the same time. While the original featured rap by Badshah, he has been well replaced by Raja Kumari delivering the female rap. The music does not go far from the original keeping the same tempo and hook pieces with the tumbi leading the melody of the song. Bagchi adds a strong deep bass line to the track mixing it well with some dhol beats in the chorus. This brings a little more contemporary feel to the song making it perfect for club and radio plays. Although the song is an apt choice for bringing the swag factor of the characters to the forefront, this song is still quite recent to already have a remake of. Plus the music & melody is not a big reinvention so the original is still as effective as this version. Except for the addition of female vocals & lyrics there is nothing new to hear here and so this song really seems like a waste.

Rachit Arora delivers Para Para next that sounds like a song trying hard to copy the RD Burman style of delivering dramatic songs. Even the vocals of Arun Dev Yadav are a copy of Burman’s singing style with a gravelly voice but nothing as effective as the boss of Bollywood’s style. This a background song and the lyrics by Prakhar Varunendra are quite random highlighting the chaos of the characters mental state. The chorus has a strong melody but the rest of the song is a cheap copy and inspired in many ways. For a background situational song in the movie this music piece might work but as a standalone song it has almost nothing favorable going for it.

Title song Judgementall Hai Kya features the voices of Jaspreet Jasz, Rachita Arora & child artist Nivedita Padmanabhan. Opening with cute poetry by this 6-year-old represents the mental state of Ranaut’s character as a grown-up child while Arora does a good job himself on the male vocals almost sounding like the dark voices in one’s head. Jasz barely has a part in the song and her vocals are quite mediocre in her supporting role. Vocals are the main focus of the song trying to spook the listeners with their dark delivery. The music is nicely programmed going psychedelic to further the dark mental attributes of the song. Lyrics by Varunendra are quite average with low sticky quality built in within the poetry. Decent background song but fitting well as a title song.

Kis Raste Hai Jana has the best lyrics on the album with Kumaar leading the way on this song. A sad song about a lost phase in life with strong Punjabi influence, this is a good one to listen to. Vocals by Surabhi Dashputra are quite overwhelming with deep emotions linked to it. Her style is quite similar to that of Jasleen Royal but her gravelly vocal tone is a good differentiator and adds more maturity than what Royal can deliver. Arjuna Harjai supports on the male vocals delivering a sufi classical vocal very well. He has also composed this song and his choice of simplistic instrumentation and somber acoustic notes is quite refined proving his musical caliber behind the mic or behind the music composition desk. The melodies are very well balanced and that imparts a beautiful soothing characteristic to the song making this one of the best songs the album can boast of.

Daniel George composes a short final number called Kar Samna with lyrics of Prakhar Vihaan. This is yet another background situational song for the movie talking about facing the troubling times in life. The vocal chorus of Amir Khan, Brijesh Shandilya, Protijyoti Ghosh & George himself is powerful but nothing special to listen to. The strong rock composition doesn’t have the punch to deliver an impact and the lyrics are nothing really to talk about. Just about tolerable as it is only about 80 secs of music to listen to but still better off skipping this last track.

FINAL WORD
The music album of ‘Judgementall Hai Kya’ has a mix and match approach of songs that really doesn’t work well for the album as there is no consistency in the soundtrack. The album has some dark and quirky elements to it, but it seems all over the place trying to tick too many boxes at the same time. Rachita Arora tries to stay close to the brief of dark and dramatic music but it is not impressive or impact-full with neither Para Para or Judgementall Hai Kya worth listening to on a repeat. Arjuna Harjai’s Kis Raste Hai Jaana is perhaps the best song on the album but as a sad song it won’t get the attention and marketing it deserves to become a success. Obviously the focus and center of the album is The Wakhra Swag for commercial reasons with all the airplay devoted to it but being so current itself it lands up competing too close with the original itself. Its main differentiation is the song is The Wakhra Swag with a female lead and that’s about it. Lisa Mishra and Raja Kumari are definitely impressive in that capacity but this is not the best work from the hit-maker Bagchi’s studio. On the whole there is not much meat or merit in this album in any respect.

 

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