Music Review War Chhod Na Yaar

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…Expectations:

There are none.

Music:

This small film is India's first war comedy. Newcomer composer Aslam Keyi, however, does not create a fresh genre of music but goes by the beaten track. Orchestration-wise, there is nothing to standout and the lyrics too follow conventional patterns – patriotic or romantic – with barely any satirical element or anything hard-hitting on the futility of war. Like the opening song 'War chhod na yaar' (Bappi Lahiri-Rimi Dhar-Candy D'Souza) – a fairly catchy number, gets too serious about issues but without really hitting the target, so to speak.

The album has some of the finest singers of the times – Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal, Daler Mehndi, Sukhwinder Singh, Kailash Kher and even flavour of today Mika – but the compositions are not of matching caliber. It is Sonu Nigam who rescues 'Kurbaan' (with Javed Khan) to yield a tuneful melody in which he infuses a lot of feeling.

Similarly Shreya Ghoshal (with Ali Aslam and Javed Ali trying to sound more like Sonu than Sonu himself!) delivers 'Main jaagu aksar' into the zone of the listenable. The Sufi-tinged lyrics and qawwali influences make the song have a fleeting appeal. Its other version does not credit Shreya, though she is featured there as well with Shujath Ali Khan and – again – Ali Aslam.

However, 'Phat gaya' (Daler Mehndi) and the two versions of 'Mharo desh mahaan' (Kailash Kher) are forgettable as soon as they are played out. Sukhwinder Singh's 'Jai jawaan', the Mika Singh-led four-singer song 'Fauji' and the two-version 'Khwabon si jo' (the more tolerable one by Naresh Iyer, the other by Ali Azmat and Sujith Kumar) do not make any mark even after repeated hearings.

The 'Fauji Club Mix' (by the same four singers) is as stereotyped as they come.

Overall:

Apart from being a score that seems functional, at the other level, we find the songs too lengthy despite their lack of intrinsic substance. The soundtrack is more than an hour long, giving the impression that the film is a musical!

Our Pick:

Kurbaan, Main jaagun aksar

Music: Aslam Keyi
Lyrics: Faraz Haider, Bebak Amrohi & Azeem Shirazi
Music Label: T-Series

Article written by staff at Bollywood Hungama. Read more