Music Review Krrish 3

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:

Expectations are sky-high given the Filmkraft track-record. Rajesh Roshan barely composes for outside films today, and in the last two decades, he has usually reserved his best for his producer-director brother Rakesh Roshan, with superstar-nephew Hrithik Roshan now in the picture (literally too!) as well after the 2000 Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai.

Music:

A word about the overall lyrics first – veteran Sameer gets back to the Hindi film basics – simple, flowing words supporting the edifice of similar music, written to specific situations. There is no calculation to please or impress the listener, no effort to smother him with Urdu or Punjabi catchphrases in overdrive – just good old-fashioned vintage Anand Bakshi-Majrooh-like strings of words in everyday lingo that fit into the narrative. Of course, when indicated, there is a fresh thought too, expressed with the same supple felicity as in the line God Allah aur Bhagwan / Ne banaya ek insaan or in the mukhda, Dil tu hi bataa / Kahaan tha chhupa / Kyon aaj suni teri dhadkan pehli baar.

The music too follows the same principle – understated, never in-your-face, subtly melodic and – a permanent Rajesh Roshan hallmark – brilliantly orchestrated. The production is immaculate too. Roshan Jr. always brings in an 'inspired' or 'adapted' track into his work, and packages it so smartly that all we do is enjoy it as his handiwork – with the impact growing on additional hearings.

Take the lead track 'Krrish Krrish' (Mamta Sharma, Anurudh Bhola and Rajesh Roshan himself taking to the microphone in one of his very rare exercises). The pulsating theme song is decked up with a nice prelude fusion of Indian and Western strings and beats and grows into a crescendo even before the words start. Typical innovation enriches the song because solo instruments are brought in skillfully just to enhance a few bars, like the sitar and the tabla.

Here is where we see a new Mamta Sharma, in cooing Western mode instead of her standard raunchy folk tenor. Roshan is soothing vocally. The trick of using only pulsating music rather than words as a connection between antara and mukhda is a typical stamp of the composer, who sounds contemporary four decades after he started out!

'Raghupati Raghav Rajaram' (Neeraj Shridhar-Monali Thakur-Bob) seems to very situation-specific – and one hopes that the song's visuals justifies the use of this sacred mantra alongside the frenetic grooves and rap-like interpolations in this dance number. Once again, Roshan highlights different instruments in small segments, uses the refrain of the mantra in two different scales as musical interludes – and employs only music as a bridge between the antara and mukhda.

Next up is a haunting melody decked up in a novel way with some unique orchestration – 'Dil tu hi bataa' (Alisha Chinai-Zubeen Garg). Alisha's presence infuses freshness, and Roshan once again swerves the composition (derived from a couple of previous sources) into the realm of the extraordinary by deft uses of the sitar and other single instruments at the most unexpected moments. Yes, Alisha could have been more expressive, ditto Zubeen – ideally, this could have been a superb Sunidhi Chauhan-KK duet.

Alisha is disappointingly arch in 'You are my love' (with a subdued Mohit Chauhan), which has fun lyrics by Sameer Anjaan. However, it cannot be denied that she sounds uncannily like Priyanka Chopra and in that sense, she is better cast here than in the previous song that is not filmed on this actress. The song has a Himesh Reshammiya-like prelude, but is one of the weak aspects on this score.

The next song, 'God Allah aur Bhagwan' (Sonu Nigam-Shreya Ghoshal) gets into the zone of the predictable in music as well as lyrics – it could be placed no questions asked in any film in the '70s and '80s and rendered by the happening playback voices of that decade. The composition is of the heard-before kind, and Shreya's interest level seems to flag, though Sonu puts in a wonderful effort. The orchestration also juggles between eras within the six-and-a-half minute song. Nevertheless, or probably because of these factors, there is an element of mass-friendly appeal too.

Finally DJ Shiva plays safe in his remixes of 'Dil tu hi bataa' as 'Raghupati Raghav Rajaram', neither spoiling the basic composition nor breaking new ground. They end up sounding as if cosmetic variations have been added for the dance floor.

Overall:

But on the whole, Rajesh Roshan delivers a simple, fluid, easy-on-the-ears score, music perfect for a sci-fi film that concentrates on emotions, action and visual effects. The music is placid, a shade techno and a palatable mix of old and new – just like the film. This is music that will grow with the film, and if heard by an unbiased ear that is not polluted by trendy tunes and sound, will draw that music buff even more towards the movie.

Our Pick:

Raghupati Raghav Rajaram, Dil tu hi bataa, God Allah aur Bhagwan

Music: RAJESH ROSHAN
Lyrics: SAMEER ANJAAN
Music Label: T-SERIES

Article written by staff at Bollywood Hungama. Read more