Maneesh Sharma’s directorial debut under the YRF banner, Band Baaja Baaraat’s music was released by the lead pair of Ranveer Singh-Anushka Sharma this week. The couple play wedding planners in the movies: Shruti and Bittoo are just out of Delhi University. A chance and inopportune meeting brings them together to reluctantly start a tumultuous entrepreneurial venture as Wedding Planners. Their business enters the ups and downs of the lavish world of the glamour and glitz of Delhi baaraats and weddings that will test their friendship over time.
Since the film is centered on the theme of marriage the musical duo of Salim-Sulaiman have tried to incorporate this in most of the songs of the album. Amitabh Bhattacharya, who has given some good and at times wacky lyrics for movies like Dev D, Aamir, and Houseful, penned the lyrics for BBB. The album aims at being a youthful one with a thadka of traditional wedding band-baaja. The final output? Let’s find out.
The soundtrack consists of 7 original tracks and 2 remixes. The first track on the album, Ainvayi Ainvayi, is already out and climbing the charts. Sung by Salim Merchant and Sunidhi Chauhan, this one’s a really good song with the male vs female nauk-jhok nicely conveyed through Amitabh’s lyrics. Sunidhi’s great as usual, an apt choice for this Punjabi flavored song, but Salim surprises you with his rendition in truly Punjabi style. This one will surely stay with you.
Tarkeebein, sung by Benny Dayal (of Ghajini fame) and Salim again, is another awesome song from this album. It does have a slow start, that then picks up a bit of pace. Tarkeebein reflects the youth mentality and aspirations – great ideas, great dreams. There are some really wacky lyrics : “Sir pe maalish ke jaise hai mansoobe har dil ke, uljhe baalon ke jaise raaste hain manjil ke, jeboh main rakhle yaara kangi hain tarkeebein“, and you can’t help but fall in love with this song. Perfect use of the guitar.
Aadha Ishq by Shreya Ghosal is a pretty decent number. A romantic track with very typical lyrics and Salim-Sulaiman treatment, this song is ok but will definitely wear off after repeated hearings. The crooning by the lady in the song seems completely out of place and tends to break the flow of the song.
Just when you feel that the soundtrack’s going pretty well, comes the next song Dum Dum by Benny and Himani Kapoor (Sa Re Ga Ma Pa finalist and heard on ‘Jogi Mahi’ from Bachna Aae Haseeno) which tries to be sad-rock-sufi kind of number and fails miserably. There is nothing to save this song. You can safely skip this one.
Amitabh Bhattacharya, the voice behind the soulful ‘Iktara’ from Wake Up Sid, teams up with Salim(again) to give another beautiful track, Mitra. Pretty good combination of guitar-drum beats, this song succeeds in creating a sad song with a good rock background. Speaking of love lost between two people, this is a song which many would surely like.
Punjabi dhol-baaja comes back again with the next track Baari Barse, sung by Harshdeep Kaur, Labh Janjua and Salim. ‘Baari Barse’; is a traditional song at many Punjabi weddings, albeit with a twist. The combination of new lyrics and Punjabi beats makes this a likeable song. Be sure and check out the hatke descriptions of the relatives in the song. The downside is that this being a very typical Punjabi song, listeners who have had enough of such songs may not enjoy this number so much.
Salim-Shraddha Pandit’s Title track Band Baaja Baaraat is a pretty short one – it’s barely 2 minutes and mostly contains music – but it manages to makes its presence felt. Probably to be used for the montages of the different weddings in the movie, this adds the remaining masti for a wedding atmosphere.
The last two are remixes, Ainvayi (Dilli Club Mix) and Dum Dum (Sufi Mix) – with Sukhwinder Singh replacing Benny – are strictly below average, run-of-the mill remixes; heavy dose of unnecessary beats which seem out of sync with the song.
This is Salim-Sulaiman’s second album this year after Teen Patti. And while it definitely is an improvement over latter’s soundtrack, you can’t help but feel that this album fails to live up to the expectation generated by the initial tracks. Maybe it’s just their signature style but you do feel hints of Rocket Singh, Aaja Nachle in these songs. The lyrics are unconventional and definitely worth a mention. However, don’t expect too much and you won’t be disappointed.
