Music Review: Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani

With the film coming out in just over a month, the soundtrack to Ayan Mukherji’s Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani was released today. The film stars Ranbir Kapoor, who was in Ayan’s first film Wake Up Sid, Deepika Padukone, Kalki Koechlin and Aditya Roy Kapur, and the music has been composed by Pritam.

I’m no big fan of Pritam, we all know he’s not above “taking inspiration” from somewhere, but he’s been impressing me lately, especially with last year’s Barfi! soundtrack, so who knows, maybe my opinion of him will improve with time. Check the bottom of the post for track listing, and the YouTube jukebox.

The first track in Badtameez Dil, which was released as a single in early April, so I’ve been listening to it for a while now. It’s qutie catchy, but after a few listens it kind lost its charm. I still like it, and listen to it, but it’s not as exciting anymore. I’ve been listening to Balam Pichkari for almost as long though, I still quite enjoy it, even with some seriously silly lyrics, courtesy of Amitabh Bhattacharya, “jeans pehen ke, jo tumne mara thumka, toh Lattoo padosan ki bhabhi ho gayi“. I’m not even going to think about translating that into English, because there’s no way of doing that without sound completely ridiculous.

The third track is version one of Ilahi, first sung by Arijit Singh, and then a reprise by Mohit Chauhan at the end of the album. (For some reason the Arijit version isn’t on iTunes yet, but it is on the T-Series YouTube jukebox, which you can check out below.) It’s quite a sweet, upbeat, ‘youthful’ kind of song. Both version are fairly similar though, so it’ll probably come down to preference of voice. Personally, I think I prefer the Arijit version, even though his voice is a little like Atif Aslam’s, but Pritam uses Mohit Chauhan way too much.

The next track is also the first of two versions, Kabira, sung by Rekha Bhardwaj and Tochi Raina. I absolutely love Rekha Bhardwaj’s voice, but her version is just not as good as the second version, which is track 8, very unoriginally titled Kabira 2. 2 is sung by Harshdeep Kaur, who also has an amazing voice, and Arijit Singh, and has a slightly sad, shaadi/wedding song feel to it. I don’t know if their voices would have worked well together or not, but I would have loved to hear a version that was Harshdeep Kaur and Tochi Raina. Not that Arijit Singh isn’t good on it, but I think the song suits Raina better. Kabira 2 is probably my favourite track of the album.

The next song, Dilli Waali Girlfriend, was released a few days ago, and again despite some silliness in the lyrics, I fell in love. It’s more than fun enough to forgive the lyrics, which are amusing in the right mood, but I imagine if I heard them for the first time in the wrong mood,  they’d just piss me off.

Subhanallah is probably the only proper romantic song of the film, which is sweet, but nothing special, and is a little bit like a tame version of Salim-Sulaiman’s Shukran Allah, from Kurbaan, and I’m not saying that just because of the titles are similar. The vocals are by Sreeram, and Shilpa Rao who is always a pleasant surprise on a soundtrack, and isn’t use nearly enough.

Madhuri Dixit has been reported to be doing a special appearance in a song for the film, and my guess would be her song is the next one, Ghagra, mainly because it’s the only one that would fit. It’s not guess that required a lot of brain power. Not meaning to keep bringing up Pritam and his inspirations, it might not have even been the intention, but Ghagra, has a bit of a Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Kajra Re feel to it. It won’t become as big a deal though, but I imagine it would be good fun in the film, especially as Farah Khan has choreographed the number.

And that’s it. Nine tracks, seven original songs, which is pretty good for a Hindi film these days. Most seem to be doing with a standard four or five, and a couple of remixes. I am so grateful there are no remixes on this. Maybe I’m too harsh on Pritam.

Favourites: Kabira 2, and Dilli Waali Girlfriend.

Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani releases on May 31st 2013.

Track list (different on the jukebox and on iTunes/CD):

1. Badtameez Dil – Benny Dayal, Shefali Alvares

2. Balam Pichkari – Vishal Dadlani, Shalmali Kholgade

3. Ilahi – Arijit Singh

4. Kabira – Rekha Bhardwaj, Tochi Raina

5. Dilli Waali Girlfriend – Arijit Singh, Sunidhi Chauhan

6. Subhanallah – Sreeram, Shilpa Rao

7. Ghagra – Vishal Dadlani, Rekha Bhardwaj

8. Kabira 2 – Arijit Singh, Harshdeep Kaur

9. Ilahi (Reprise) – Mohit Chauhan