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Music Review: ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’

Akshay Kumar is back with another social responsibility film to add to his string of hits. This one is oddly called ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’. With a title like that, one would imagine it to be a cheesy slapstick comedy but it is rather a satirical comedy with a strong social message about defecation in public areas in India and the fight of a man to get toilets installed across his village. Kumar has a way around making such films into big hits and this film sure has potential going by the trailers. With a short album of 4 songs, musical variety might not be a strength of the film but it sure seems to have good line up of names on the album with a great list singers directed by Vickey Prasad leading most of the songs. Siddharth – Garima are delivering the lyrics on all songs of the album.

A sombre Sonu Nigam opens the album with Hans Mat Pagli. He works with a soft vocal texture almost like of a person waking up early morning with freshness to his vocal. Only Nigam could do that with his voice that works well with the composition by Vickey Prasad to give it an easy-going romantic vibe. The use of acoustic guitars and Karnatic strings with flutes and a gorgeous mix of Tabla and Ghattam is very melodic to listen to. The overall melody of the song is very refreshing with a classical Hindustani arrangement. Another fantastic melodic addition to the song is the voice of Shreya Ghoshal who complements Nigam well and maintains a very harmonic & controlled vocal delivery. Lyrics by Siddharth – Garima are romantic to say the least but with an interesting take of associating with the laughs & smiles that go with falling in love. A good song overall but with a standard cliched structure but one that works in its favour.

Bakheda features another two great voices of Sukhwinder Singh and Sunidhi Chauhan leading the vocals of playful romantic song. Prasad gives it a fun beat with duf drums, dholki and guitars. The beat structure is interesting with a strong rural touch to it fitting with the setting of the film. The composition is an easy one on the ears that one can bob along to. Singh’s and Chauhan’s vocals are representative of the characters in the film and their pronunciations deliver close association with the regionality of this film but the song doesn’t give them room to do something great with their vocals. Lyrics by Siddharth – Garima are quite average as well and don’t stand out much. Fairly average song for its short duration.

Sonu Nigam takes on Gori Tu Latth Maar with supporting vocals of Palak Muchhal next. Pictured on Kumar yet again in an out of season Holi festival setting, the song is a typical celebratory Holi composition but with lyrics of forgiveness in love with Kumar trying to patch up with his lady love in the movie. The use of the tradition of girls attacking the guys with sticks (latth) while the guys protect themselves with a shield is what is song really uses to try and get the couple together. For this scene setting the lyrics by Siddharth – Garima are mediocre to say the least and the Holi setting sounds rather forced simply to get the Lath-Mar Holi sequence in there. Clearly the setting of the song in the film is not festive with the couple not talking and so listening to the song it doesn’t seem to work even though the song carries some good vocals by Muchhal & Nigam. Music by Manas-Shikhar is standard but nothing special about it.

Subah Ki Train feature the music and vocals of Sachet Tandon and Parampara Thakur. They have an interesting style and vocal texture in the song which is quite unique to hear. The rural pronunciations are fun to hear in this romantic song with a twist that is light, cheesy and innocent in a lot of the lyrics by Siddharth-Garima. They keep the music simple with no frills to it and focus on keeping a simple arrangement as well that is easy to sing and hum along with. This song is nothing special or brilliant but simplicity is what works for this song with the voices of Tandon & Thakur worth a listen.

FINAL WORD
The sound of ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’ is quite rural as expected considering the story and setting of the film. The album does try to achieve a sound that works for masses across the board but it doesn’t do a great job trying to achieve a mainstream status while will definitely not help with making this album a success in international markets with Akshay Kumar fans. Vickey Prasad does a fair job with the music keeping it pure with simple compositions. He focuses on getting good voices on the album with some big names including Nigam, Ghoshal, Singh, Chauhan and Muchhal doing a fairly decent job on their respective songs. Lyrics by Siddharth – Garima are average overall with some interesting concepts and themes used in each song but fail to impress and stand out. A short album with nothing spectacular about it is the general vibe of this soundtrack that is not very memorable.

BizAsiaLive.com Rating – 6.5/10