Music: Vishal-Shekhar
Lyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya
Ratings: ***
Just like his films,the music album of Rohit Shettys latest film Chennai Express is formulaic. Composer duo Vishal-Shekhar fills the template of the SRK-starrer with the mandatory massy elements couple of dance hits and romantic numbers,and obligatory South Indian musical motifs that come with the films premise.
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One two three four is modeled around a standard Tamil dance number. It thumps to the rhythms of the Carnatic percussion,sung with great fervour by Hamsika Iyer and Vishal Dadlani.
The best results show in the songs that carry forward the melody of simple Bollywood tunes. Titli has an almost folk tune,and the composers keep things simple with a minimalist arrangement (with a stunning harmonica solo in the interlude),allowing the melody to drive the song. Both Chinmayi Sripada and Gopi Sunders unheard vocals enhance the freshness of the song. Tera raasta chhodoon na is an easy-on-the-ears romantic ballad. Lyricist Bhattacharya and Anusha Manis renditions lend the song its required breeziness.
Kashmir main,tu kanyakumari,is a joyous pop song that bears the hallmark
of the 90s Bollywood,so much so that,Arijit Singh sounds like Udit Narayan.
It works for the same reasons why the much publicised SP Balasubramaniam voiced Chennai Express title song works for the unabashed flourishing of its Bollywood colours,with a catchy melody at the center. It is caricaturishly fashioned around Balasubramaniams trademark singing style.
The rest,Ready steady po and the couple of remixes have little to write about,except their excessive auto tuned voices and cluttered arrangements that make more noise than music.
Chennai Express is a designed-for-movie album,where the composers understandably stick to a given brief,but one just wishes that there were more imagination to it. The songs shelf life may just be limited to the movie and its picturisation on stars.
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