Kaabil Music Review: Below the Mark

The only time the album comes alive is for the remix version of his iconic piece, Dil kya kare from Julie. It’s not the best remix we’ve heard, but the groove that’s added through the drumbeats and piano interludes make it work. Jubin Nautiyal has an extremely nasal and flat voice and fails to have any impact in any song that he’s attempted in the album. The prickly part is that he has sung five of the six songs. Reworked by Gourov-Roshin, Dil kya kare works only because we know the melody well and it takes one down memory lane. Saara zamaana haseeno ka deewana is a combination of the 80s melody with Raftaar’s rap and overworked electronica. Sung by Payal Dev, whose voice sounds extremely synthetic, the track is likely to warm the dance floors for its tempo. This one, however, is definitely better-produced than the former piece from Julie.

The opening song, the title track, is from the typical verse-chorus 90s Bollywood world. Roshan tries to bring in classical Spanish touches here and there with the fast-paced riffs on the guitar but the song, a saccharine overload, is a four-minute monotonous mess. The album also comes with a sad version of the track, which, for the lack of a better word, is just sad. Nautiyal’s voice, which is off-key in so many places, becomes absolutely intolerable in this one.

Kuch din attempts to be a soft, romantic, melody, but fails to strike any chord. It moves with guitars and synths in a tedious fashion and sounds as if it has been drained of all vocal and rhythmic intensity. Mon amour has the talented Vishal Dadlani at the helm and all the zing in the song is his gift to us. It’s also one of the only pieces in the album that is orchestrated well. The Spanish guitar and trumpet pieces are layered nicely with Dadlani’s voice. The problem, however, is the ordinariness of the composition itself.

After one, long, drag of a music playing session of Sanjay Gupta’s Hrithik Roshan and Yami Gautam-starrer Kaabil, we are left with just one thought — we go through music as terrible as this so that you don’t have to. A completely misguided album that can be given a miss.