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Music Review: ‘The Big Bull’

Abhishek Bachchan was epic in his “loosely based biopic” role as Dhirubhai Ambani in ‘Guru’ (2007) and now he is going back to that genre playing stockbroker Harshad Mehta in the forthcoming release ‘The Big Bull’. Debutant director Kookie Gulati leads this project under Ajay Devgn’s production that will release on the Hotstar OTT platform. Bachchan looks sensational in the trailer going for perfection with a strong supporting cast of Ram Kapoor, Saurabh Shukla, Ileana D’cruz and Nikita Dutta. Music might not be a strength of this movie as no major single releases have happened in the lead up to the movie release. The soundtrack has a mixed batch of songs from various talent with some new ones including Gourov Dasgupta, Wily Frenzy and Mehul Vyas on the music while Kunwar Juneja, Anil Verma and CarryMinati on the lyrics.

The album opens with a romantic number in the voice of Ankit Tiwari called Ishq Namazaa. His voice works well for Bachchan’s character on screen. The range he delivers with a soft chorus and a high middle section gives good variability to the song with a strong vocal and great amount of clarity in his delivery. The annunciation on every word is pretty neat thus having a good effect on the listener. Juneja’s lyrics are warm & effective even though they are not very deep. The flow is good and emotions are quite well expressed. Dasgupta has structured the song well as it has a nice calming ring to it for most parts but then he elevates the high parts with some great electric guitar solos. At first it feels the solos don’t belong there but it grows on you as the romantic mellow vibes balance it out. Overall a decently good song but one that lacks commercial music aspects in a hugely crowded romantic music space. Nonetheless a good song to listen to. 3/5

Satire and parody rapper & Youtuber CarryMinati delivers the title track of the album The Big Bull – Title Track. He is an interesting choice to feature on this album and thus making his Bollywood debut with his usual partner Wily Frenzy who delivers music on all his online work. The choice of having these two works as they deliver a powerful progressive rap that summarises the character and his journey to becoming the Big Bull. The style is different than the common Bollywood rap which is where this background title song stands out. The singing is decent while the music is loud which makes the point for this number. It is a bit repetitive and lacks an edge in music. This is not a strong leading song but it deserves credit for being different with a different approach. 2.5/5

It’s good to hear Yasser Desai on the vocals of the next song Hawaon Ke Sheher Mein. Another romantic number that has a lot more depth than the opening track thanks to Juneja’s lyrics and sombre music from Dasgupta. The soft violins and acoustic guitars throughout with violin solo are nice to hear but the overall melody has a good ring to it thanks to the arrangement that is easy to get along with for a sad romantic. The classical styling of the song works nicely complementing Desai’s vocals. The vocals are the best part of the song with a deep tone that is only unique to him. His voice is engaging and emotionally deliver the lyrics in a heartfelt way. This is a good number and perhaps the best on the soundtrack but only limited by its genre. 3.5/5

Sunidhi Chauhan makes an appearance on the album with Paise Ka Nasha to finish the album with a bang, clearly a song fitting and actually a must on a movie about one of the biggest financial fraudsters of all time in India. A song like this needs a powerful vocal and Chauhan is most fitting for this song. The high chorus and the rap are ideal features for her vocal ability but even with her talent on it this song is lacklustre. Music by Vyas is dull and the arrangement is mediocre at best. The music programming sounds very poor and Verma’s lyrics are average too. Being a background build up song for the middle part of the movie, the genre is such that there is not much scope to reinvent and add a musical zing to this song. This is an easy one to listen to and forget. 2/5

FINAL WORD
The soundtrack of ‘The Big Bull’ has the expected aspects for a movie of this genre. The big commercial numbers are missing for a movie in this genre as the story doesn’t demand it and there is more of background music. Even then the soundtrack squeezes in a couple good romantic numbers that do have some legs to go up the ladder. Ishq Namazaa and Hawaon Ke Sheher Mein are songs worth a listen with good vocals by Ankit Tiwari and Yasser Desai. Even though this is a mixed talent soundtrack, this is Gourov Dasgupta and Kunwar Juneja’s album really with these two songs being the best ones that director Kookie Gulati has picked. The other two songs are background fillers and lack much charisma to create an impression. There is a lot missing in this OST including genres, depth, great lyrics and music but most of all it is missing a strong personality and a defined sound to it. It still has these two good songs to listen to. Once the movie is out the music could be elevated instead of it working the other way around.

 

 

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