Thursday, May 19, 2016

Udta Punjab Music Review

"Punjabi rap overload sans Honey Singh/Badshah"

Music: Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Shellee, Varun Grover, Late Shri Shiv Kumar Batalvi
Ratings: ***1/2



1. Chitta Ve
Chitta Ve has strong hangover of Amit Trivedi's past works (I can particularly pinpoint Queen, Luv Shuv... and Shaandaar in this). But it seamlessly fits into this album's soundscape. Babu Haabi's grungy rap (who sounds like Suraj Jagan) and other trippy sounds grew to my liking after multiple listening.

2. Da Da Dasse
This one takes the rap and EDM sound of the album forward. Given the Punjabi terrain of the film and the soundtrack, Kanika Kapoor comes in as a right fit here. 

3. Ikk Kudi
Shiv Kumar Batalvi's nazm is re-imagined into an acoustic led contemporary composition, keeping the soul intact -- thanks to Shahid Mallya's heartfelt rendition. Though Rabbi Shergill has set a high standard for this one, Trivedi adapts it into a more hummable tune. 

4. Ud-daa Punjab
This one's an out-and-out winner, musically as well as lyrically. The energy is infectious. Trivedi and Dadlani keeps bouncing the ball to each other. While former grooves on a tuneful, latter raps and how! 

5. Hass Nach Le
Shahid Mallya gets another one in this album -- a sufi -- and he is equally brilliant here too. At times it feels too neat for its own good... loss of some rustic charm;  but it is infused with enough soul.

6. Vadiya
Vadiya tries to resonate with the psyche of a drug consumed, lyrically too. Trivedi sets his vocals on a lounge-ish tune, then takes the electronica to ear-bleeding levels. Wish Trivedi had done some more experimentation here and not restricted to the average length of four minutes. 

7. Ikk Kudi - Reprised Version
The guitar sounds more bluesy here but it eventually grows into a full rock. Daljit sucks the soul out of it. The track exists purely as a marketing vehicle just because they have roped in an actor who's also a singer.

Trivedi has been dangerously treading the line between 'having one's stamp over the album' and 'repeating oneself' for quite sometime now. His last Hindi film album this year -- Fitoor -- had one electronic track (Ranga Re) which I never warmed up to. Udta Punjab is largely electronic, yet it sounds different and unique to the album. So you know which side of the line Trivedi has fallen this time.

2 comments:

@Rohwit said...

Hmm...
Hmmmmmmmmmm......
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm............

:)

Anup said...

Thanks Rohwit for your deep and meaningful comment! :)