Music Review: ‘Sooryavanshi’
Rohit Shetty’s police action bonanza is back with its next edition in the shape of ‘Sooryavanshi’ releasing this Diwali. The franchise featuring hit movies ‘Singham’ (2011), ‘Singham Returns’ (2014) and ‘Simmba’ (2018) has a new star with Akshay Kumar playing supercop with the beautiful Katrina Kaif as his leading lady. Of course, Ajay Devgn and Ranveer Singh join him here to bring the franchise together. The supporting cast is quite solid as well with biggies Jackie Shroff, Gulshan Grover, Jaaved Jaaferi joining in this multi-starrer. One can expect the usual Rohit Shetty elements including big chases, south-style action, blown up cars and a really loud sound score from this movie. The music is a compilation of a number of singles picked across various artists and one can expect some big songs as Shetty always delivers some really popular songs with a mass appeal in his big budget bonanzas. With some of the music biggies on here, this movie could deliver the music to end this year with a bang.
The first single out is a big remake in the perfect style that Shetty is known to create with his energetic fun-filled song with a mass appeal. Aila Re Aillaa is a remake of the song of the same title in the comedy ‘Khatta Meetha’ (2010) that also starred Kumar. A proper item number, the original had a punch to it thanks to the strong vocals of Daler Mehndi delivering a dynamic Marathi styled vocal. Not much has changed on that front in 10 years as Mehndi is equally spirited delivering a really peppy number that is truly massy in every way. His high-pitched performance is something that only is capable of delivering to such note perfection. Music is in the hands of the remake king Tanishk Bagchi who not only retains the magic of the original score by Pritam but also seamlessly transitions this song into a series theme blending in the soundtracks of ‘Singham’ (2011) and ‘Simmba’ (2018). The fusion is loud with a lot of attack and vibrancy to it. The additional percussions are what give this song its 2019 appeal and the programming is truly good. The new bit of lyrics by Shabbir Ahmed are minimalistic but do a pretty good job in adding the enjoyable elements to this song while almost making it a theme song for cops across India. The lyrics demonstrate that mix of strength and fun that work for the character in the movie. Overall it is a perfect opening number that one would associate with this movie series and acts almost as a theme song. But at the same time it is a remake and a very short one at that with a lot squeezed into it making it a little over the top. 3.5/5
Mere Yaaraa is the romantic single on the album composed by Pritam’s Jam8 project by Kaushik-Guddu-Akash trio. The song has that sprinkle of magic that Pritam usually delivers in his romantic song with a somber ambience and Bollywood styling that makes him a master of this genre. He surely has passed it down well to the trio as a great mentor and the outcome is brilliant. The opening with an acoustic guitar and Sarangi is simply gorgeous. The electric and bass guitars complement the vocalists well during the chorus with some brilliantly recorded Tabla and Dholak delivering perfect percussions for this song. The composition is overall brilliant with a calming progression to it. The song literally grows on one with a lovely Saranga solo in the bridge. Rashmi Virag’s lyrics are one of the best of theirs till date with a butter smooth flow. The emotions are simple and totally exposed through their choice of words. The chorus is extremely effective and memorable and thus the biggest strength of the song. Arijit Singh as expected is a star of the song and uses his high pitch almost throughout the song with almost no effort. Although in reality, this composition and arrangement is what one would expect to hear Ustad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan to deliver, but Singh makes this his own and does a really good job with it as always. Neeti Mohan has a small part in the song but she takes a low tone with a deep vocal delivery which is a nice contrast to Singh’s high end. The end result is a great culmination of top-end talent in every aspect making this a great song to listen to. 4/5
Pav Dharia’s 2017 original Punjabi song has been given a new lease of life by Bagchi as his remake of NaJaa has a super cool vibe to it. The original arrangement is there but now the beat has an exciting bass and attack to it that creates a strong groove that is real fun to listen to. The slow tempo combined with this sexy groove makes this a song work really well in the urban romantic genre and also as a cool club tune. And this is not even the best part…! The vocals by Nikhita Gandhi are just simply sensational! She has made this song entirely hers and the amount of oomph and class she brings to it is just super amazing! Her slight bit of soft husk in her voice complements Dharia’s authentic Punjabi vocals. She supports the brand new set of Hindi lyrics by Bagchi as well and they have that additional layer of impudence and sass that go perfectly well with the Punjabi chorus. The mix of retaining the original Punjabi chorus and a totally new set of simple lyrics gives this song that Bollywood touch that makes Punjabi songs a rage across the country. The video is shot well too and has some sick choreography that with Kaif’s dancing skills gives this song an extra edge. Kudos to Bagchi for yet another brilliant remake. 4/5
Back in the day, Viju Shah created a mammoth of a soundtrack for Kumar’s movie ‘Mohra’ (1994) where every song became a defining sound of the era. One of those humongous hit was Tip Tip Barsa Pani and Bagchi has taken on this one too. But this is far less of a remake than what he normally achieves on other tracks. Perhaps the reason for that is that the original was just too perfect and a true iconic number. So Bagchi has left not just left the melody intact but also brought in the original singers to make this song more of a refresher song than a remake. Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik sound as good as they did 25 years ago and the additional alternate lyrics by Bagchi compliment Anand Bakshi’s original lines with similar levels to seduction. The sex appeal of the song lays in its original melody and vocals and both are intact here as is. Musically Bagchi has rendered a new beat with some attack and slap to it making it more dancy of sorts plus added some additional sound effects and supporting vocals. Basically the song is a re-mastered version of the original with minor tweaks made to the lyrics and vocals so as a production this is not a great remake but it sure is a big addition to the album. The famous chemistry of Kumar and Kaif together in the video will help make this remake a rage as mush as the original but overall as a song there is limited creativity here. 3/5
Lijo George – DJ Chetas has done a good job remixing the Singham theme and transforming it into the Sooryavanshi Theme. It is a high decibel remix and comes with a lot of sound effects added on to the trumpet piece that usually dominates the entire background score of these Rohit Shetty cop stories. The beat has a deep synthetic bass added to it that gives this a good tempo to it. In the absence of any lyrics the vocals simply shout out the title with a good amount of aggression. There is good amount of music sampling & programming here that gives the track a fair bit of variation to keep it interesting. It has not been overdone and is at the right balance to make this a decent background score. 3.5/5
FINAL WORD
As expected, Shetty has compiled a high decibel commercial massy soundtrack for his next super-cop adventure ‘Sooryavanshi’. He has achieved that by mainly banking on the remake & production mammoth Bagchi for delivering three major remakes in the form of Aila Re Aillaa, NaJaa and Tip Tip. Although the opening song Aila Re Aillaa is well done reinventing Kumar’s 2010 song with some catchy new lyrics by Ahmed and powerful vocals by Mehndi, the later song Tip Tip is almost basic sticking to the strength of the original sex appeal of the song with Narayan and Yagnik’s vocal magic brought back. But Bagchi does well on the Punjabi song’s remake with Najaa that has some brilliant vocals by Gandhi and great new Hindi lyrics. The best song is the original romantic Mere Yaaraa by Jam8 with Singh and Mohan’s vocals and Rashmi Virag’s lyrics delivering an evocative number. DJ Chetas delivers the theme music well to sum up the album ending it with yet another mass appeal song. Overall the album sure has character and delivers well on expectations in line with its predecessors. If only the album had more original content and variable genres it would have a lot more credibility as a music album. Commercially each single has some mettle to it and will enjoy success.
BizAsiaLive.com Rating – 3.5/5
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
