Music review: R… Rajkumar songs aren’t bad,if not explosive

Rating: ***

You know what purpose the music serves when it belongs to a Prabhu Dheva film. He doesn’t even pretend to make it a part of the narrative and instead concentrates on using it as a full-blown showcase for his star-actors.

While it’s hard to recollect a soulful song from any of his films,the director,to his credit,has given us some hyper-energetic dance numbers like Jalwa and Love me from Wanted,and Chinta ta from Rowdy Rathod,where he worked with Sajid-Wajid. Unsurprisingly,he takes a similar route in his latest film R… Rajkumar,where he collaborates with Pritam.

The results aren’t bad,if not explosive. The first song of the album,Gandi Baat is also its catchiest,and is likely to emerge as its biggest hit. The entire song — despite an overtly raunchy female voice,and a mediocre antara — works because of a terrific hook,and its hero’s onscreen histrionics,if you have seen it,helps.

Mika channels the energy required for such a song to work. There is something interesting going on right at the beginning of Saree ke fall sa,in the prelude that runs throughout. There is unexpected melody in a song with such a name,in the touch karke touch karke portions; and new singer Nakash Aziz,whose nasal twangs remind of Mika,brings the required animation,essential for such a song to work.

The interesting arrangement continues in Dhokha dhadi in what sounds like an accordion piece that underlines the album’s only romantic number,sung by Arijit Singh with his trademark controlled huskiness. It’s good to hear Kunal Ganjawala after a long time in Maari maari,a song shouldered by its sole catchy hook. The other song,Kaddu katega and the two remixes are redundant in all aspects. R… Rajkumar is harmless fun,with the director-composer both serving each other’s purposes.