Music Review: Hate Story

There are good expectations from the music of Hate Story. After all Vikram Bhatt is known for having a keen ear for music while director Vivek Agnihotri too had ensured good music for Chocolate and Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal. With the duo coming together for Hate Story which also boasts of a promising subject like erotic thriller, one does expect music to play a good part here. Moreover composer Harshit Saxena had impressed with his solo track ‘Haale Dil‘ in Murder 2 and since he is at the helm of affairs for the entire album here (with Kumaar as the lyricist), the stage is set for some promising music in the offering here.

MUSIC

First thing that strikes one though is the fact that there are just three songs in the entire album. That by Bollywood standards is a pretty low number because one is used to 4-5-6 songs in majority of films.

Nevertheless, one moves on to playing Hate Story with Harshit Saxena bringing himself behind the mike for ‘Mahe Jaan‘. Expectedly the song begins with the sound of piano, something which is pretty much patented for Vikram Bhatt films, and the sound that follows doesn’t disappoint either. A love song which moves at a slow pace and does turn out to be an effortless outing, ‘Mahe Jaan‘ belongs to those ‘candle light dinner table’ songs which have been a part of Bollywood for long and would stay on for many more years to come.

While the song stays on to be melodious for the duration that it plays (notwithstanding the brief hint that one gets of ‘Teri Yaad‘ from Namastey London in the way ‘Mahe Jaan‘ peaks), one does wonder why Harshit sounds like Kunal Ganjawala at places. He is good in the way he sings naturally (as evidenced in ‘Haale Dil‘) and an attempt to bring on an accented element in his voice doesn’t really work in entirety. He in facts lets himself further loose in the ‘rock version’ of the song and the only purpose that it solves is making a listener further familiar with the tone and spirit after listening to it repeatedly.

There is sadness and pain brought into the proceedings with ‘Dil Kanch Sa‘ which, in good probability, seems like a song designed to bring forth the plight of the female protagonist here. After an extended ‘aalaap’, singer Krishna Buera keeps the situational appeal in mind while singing this one. A number about a broken heart which could well be appearing at a crucial juncture of the film, it is strictly situational instead of being the kind that you would want to play on in a repeat mode.

With an 80s sound to it, ‘Dil Kaanch Sa‘ also repeats in a ‘Heart & Soul’ version where Harshit takes it upon himself to bring on further energy into the song. Though one must admit that the song in itself is not bad, it may just have worked better in some other movie instead of a thrilling erotic drama like Hate Story where one expects the proceedings to be much more racy.

Last to arrive is ‘Raat‘ which, as expected, has Sunidhi Chauhan at the helm of affairs. Reminding one of ‘Dil Ko Hazaar Baar Roka‘ [Murder], the song has a night club feel to it, albeit with more of a situational element than being an out and out item number. Sunidhi keeps it all subdued instead of being her vociferous self while there is an old world feel to it that keeps the spirit intact. One can be rest assured that with Paoli igniting heat on screen; this situational number (which also arrives in a ‘remix version’) would do its job in keeping audience interested, both from musical as well as visual standpoint.

OVERALL

Ultimately Hate Story turns out to be a situational outing where the focus is on songs just about complimenting the narrative on screen instead of popping up as major selling elements. While this also means that the music here won’t create much dent in terms of sales or downloads, it could just about serve the purpose for the makers to keep the narrative engaging.

OUR PICK(S)

Raat, Mahe Jaan