BAAGHI?? I DON’T THINK SO!!! (BAAGHI – Music Review)

Music Album Details
♪ Music by: Amaal Mallik, Manj Musik, Ankit Tiwari & Meet Bros
♪ Lyrics by: Sanjeev Chaturvedi, Raftaar, Sabbir Khan, Abhendra Kumar Upadhyay, Kumaar, Roach Killa & Meet Bros
♪ Music Label: T-Series
♪ Music Released On: 29th March 2016
♪ Movie Releases On: 29th April 2016

Baaghi Album Cover

 

To hear the full songs of this album on Saavn CLICK HERE

To buy this album on iTunes CLICK HERE

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Baaghi is an upcoming Bollywood action / romantic film starring Shraddha Kapoor & Tiger Shroff in the lead roles and Badminton player + Telugu actor Sudheer Babu in a negative role, marking his Hindi film debut. The film has been directed by ‘Kambakkht Ishq’ and ‘Heropanti’ fame Sabbir Khan, and produced by Sajid Nadiadwala. Tiger’s first movie was also directed by the same person, produced by the same person, but ‘Heropanti’ and ‘Baaghi’ have only one person in common in the music credits, and that is Manj Musik, with one song. This album, too, follows the trend that is being liked by one and all nowadays, which is the multi-composer trend. T-Series’ hot favourite, Amaal Mallik, also composes a song, and so does Ankit Tiwari. However, Meet Bros. get the maximum number of songs (that’s just two 😛 ). Manj, last heard in ‘Singh Is Bliing’, where he composed some great songs, is expected to give great songs again. I expect Amaal to come up with another attractive and unforgettable song, and Ankit, I can’t really say what I expect, because I’m not sure if I even expect anything! Meet Bros though, stunned me with their latest ‘Ki & Ka’, so I’m awaiting some catchy songs from them in this too! 🙂 So read on to see exactly how much my expectations got fulfilled!

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1. Sab Tera

Singers ~ Armaan Malik & Shraddha Kapoor, Music by ~ Amaal Mallik, Lyrics by ~ Sanjeev Chaturvedi

First up, we get Amaal’s song. It starts with a soft and soothing piano piece, followed by the same tune played on a synthesizer. Armaan’s clear and mellifluous voice starts off with the actual words of the song, and there itself, it hooks you. Shraddha follows and tries her best to sing beautifully. Though she sounds off-note at some places and too high at others, being an actress, her singing is really commendable, if not technically perfect. Armaan and Shraddha do make a great pair and complement each other very well, making it easy for us to lean back and enjoy the song. Amaal’s composition is very calm and soothing, and he relies on a traditional-sounding Indian-ish tune to take the song forward, and it works really good. Right from the mukhda, to the hookline, to the antara, the song’s tune smells strongly of India. 😀 And Amaal’s songs almost always take forward the Indian culture through their composition and music. In this song, the arrangements are blissful, and again, totally Indian! He has done all he could to make the song sound totally and wholly Indian. Here, we have various percussion sounds that are probably electronic, but sound like a dafli, again giving the Indian feel. Guitars predominantly support the composition and seem to be the main instruments in the song. They’re just too beautiful! Sanjeev’s lyrics are the typical Bollywood romantic lyrics you hear everyday, but thanks to Amaal’s magic with the composition, they’ve been elevated to a totally different level! A feel-good romantic track to start the album off with! Not one of Amaal’s best, but, in this album, it is a #5StarHotelSong!!

 

2. Let’s Talk About Love
Singers ~ Neha Kakkar, Raftaar & Manj Musik, Music by ~ Manj Musik, Lyrics by ~ Raftaar & Manj Musik

The next song is brought to us by Manj Musik, who had a fun time giving us two great songs in ‘Singh Is Bliing’ last year, an atrocious one in ‘Gabbar Is Back’, and then one good and one bad song in ‘Heropanti’, last to last year. :p So I’m really doubtful about what he has in store now! The song follows the retro template, trying to imitate songs like ‘Jabse Mere Dil Ko Uff’ (Teri Meri Kahaani) and ‘Gustaakh Dil’ (Dil Maange More), but ending up to be nothing like them. It doesn’t even reach their level. The brass instruments — trumpets, trombones, the drums, rock guitars make for a great retro rock-n-roll ambience, but the other aspects of the song totally spoil the great arrangements. Neha Kakkar and Raftaar are not apt singers for this genre at all, and neither do they suit in this song. The composition is decent, and maybe I think it’s only decent, just because the singers haven’t done a good job at presenting it to us. Maybe if they had sung better, I would’ve found the composition better! 😀 Another problem is the programming. The trumpets and guitars are so loud, that the singers’ voices can be heard without understanding head nor tail of what they’re trying to say. (Anyways, the lyrics — Raftaar & Sabbir Khan — might not even be so meaningful for us to care about what they actually ARE! 😛 ) Another thing I’d like to point out is the “GREAT” pronunciation of Raftaar. The word “love” is pronounced just as it’s spelled — instead of saying ‘luvv’! Neha sounds good, but somebody else would definitely be there, who would’ve done even better! The lyrics (at least the ones I was ‘lucky’ enough to decipher) are nothing great (e.g, ‘Tu Spiderman hai, Teri jaal mein Phasee gaya chhokra”), they’re the usual Bollywood lyrics where a boy tries to impress the girl, and the girl remains unimpressed and ignorant until the last ten-twenty seconds of the song, when she suddenly develops a liking for him. Out of the blue. Yup. All I can say is that the song shouldn’t be skipped, but shouldn’t be heard with great expectations either!

 

3. Cham Cham
Singers ~ Monali Thakur & Meet Bros, Music by ~ Meet Bros, Lyrics by ~ Kumaar, Rap by ~ Meet Bros

You all know I was impressed by Meet Bros’ work in ‘Ki & Ka’, and now they’re back with ‘Baaghi’. They bring their first song, collaborating with Monali Thakur, who had sung for them in ‘Dhol Baaje’ (Ek Paheli Leela). She had done an unbelievable job back then, a year ago, and this time too, she is expected to rock it, what with her receiving the National Award for ‘Moh Moh Ke Dhaage’ (Dum Laga Ke Haisha) and all. 😀 The song starts off with a nadaswaram as if waking everyone up at dawn, from a sound sleep. Monali joins in with the ‘cham cham cham’ accompanied by bells ringing rhythmically. As expected, Monali does an overwhelming job, this time, changing her voice texture to make it a bit harsh and rustic, as opposed to her regular soft and sooth voice texture. Meet Bros only come to rap once in the first interlude, and the rap isn’t actually a typical ‘rap’, but just some English lines in an otherwise totally Hindi song. The composition by Meet Bros is really engaging, a celebratory tune, and extremely refreshing. Both the antaras have a different tune, both equally catchy, innovative and beautiful. It just refreshes your mind for a short period of time, and this is how it tempts you to hear it once more. Arrangements are truly fantastic here in this song, with a blend of South Indian elements in a garba-style rhythm. The temple bells give a pure and sacred feel to the song. Other digital elements enhance the song too. Towards the end, the song breaks into total garba mode, with a whole tempo change too. The lyrics are, again, nothing great, but again, they’re enhanced by beautiful singing, composition, and beautiful arrangements around them. The English lyrics by Meet Bros sound weird though… Still pondering over how exactly raindrops can ‘bounce’!!! A celebratory song that has the power to get you up on your feet and dance! Pretty much PERFECT in all departments, a little less in the lyrics one though! #5StarHotelSong!!

 

4. Agar Tu Hota
Singer ~ Ankit Tiwari, Music by ~ Ankit Tiwari, Lyrics by ~ Ankit Tiwari  (😜)  Abhendra Kumar Upadhyay 

Ankit Tiwari arrives next to offer his song. His last song, ‘Alfazon Ki Tarah’ (Rocky Handsome), though being very similar to all his other songs, impressed me to a pretty good extent, and so I was open to hear this one too. 😀 And it isn’t really bad either! It starts off with piano and electric guitars in that trademark Pritam style, which he had used in ‘Mere Bina’ (Crook) and ‘Yaariyan’ (Cocktail) and also ‘Kabira’ (Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani), and which Amaal Mallik had also used in ‘Naina’ (Khoobsurat). Though the guitars were very captivating, the mukhda which follows is really captivating too, because it isn’t at all composed like Ankit’s usual composition style. However, the magic spell is apparently broken somewhere between the end of the mukhda and the end of the song, because I found myself yawning (yes, literally!) before the song ended. It was probably the repetitive guitar arrangements that helped me to get so sleepy. This time, Ankit hasn’t composed a sleepy song which is really slow-paced. The song is considerably full-of-life, if compared with his previous songs like ‘Tu Hai Ki Nahi’ (Roy), ‘Dil Darbadar’ (PK), ‘Tu Mere Paas’ (Wazir), ‘Tu Jo Hain’, ‘Saad Shukrana’ (Mr. X) and the list goes on and on..! His voice also sounds natural in this song, surprisingly devoid of that irritating autotuning, or maybe it has been reduced, and I’m glad that he sounds great anyways. 🙂 The lyrics are pretty good, but here it is exactly the opposite of what happened in the other songs, where the lyrics fell short of the composition’s beauty. Here, the lyrics overpower the composition. Abhendra has written really commendable lyrics, which must be heard. On a whole, a decent affair. Lyrics are a must-hear, while arrangements are livelier than the other Ankit songs. What spoils it is that somewhere in the song, listeners are bound to lose interest, which indirectly means that it would’ve been better had the song been shorter! Otherwise, an applause-worthy attempt by Ankit!

 

5. Girl I Need You
Singers ~ Roach Killa, Arijit Singh, Khushboo Grewal & Meet Bros, Backing Vocals ~ Uddipan Sharma, Music by ~ Meet Bros, Lyrics by ~ Kumaar

Soothing piano notes start off the last song in the album, with amazing vocal supplementary rhythms. All this is just a sneak peek of what’s to come. It cools you down for the time being, but as soon as Arijit kicks in, you can’t help but relax and pay attention to nothing else but the song. You just completely submit to the song. This happens because of two things — first of all, Arijit’s voice has a really magical impact on you and secondly, Meet Bros’ composition is unmatchable! It just lets you drown in the song. The mukhda by Arijit seamlessly makes way for Roach Killa’s hookline, and he totally takes away the show! It’s his part that give you the most goosebumps! His seemingly breathless Hindi rap lines after the hookline reminded me of Shreya Ghoshal’s similar part in ‘Tere Naina’ (Chandni Chowk To China) Khushboo gets some beautiful lines to sing in each antara, and she carries them out with perfection. It is interesting how Arijit doesn’t actually become the leading vocalist in the song, being supported by two others, who give a great competition to him, sometimes even overpowering him! Especially Roach Killa! Meet Bros’ programming on Khushboo’s voice, is awesome, making it double and all, making it sound even more magical. Meet Bros’ composition is one-of-a-kind, a blend of a traditional Indian tune with a totally western complement. Arijit’s parts sound totally Indian, while Roach Killa’s sound totally Western, and Khushboo’s somewhere in the middle. Arijit gets two awesome lines right before the antara ends, which really sound cute! And what’s more, the song has been decorated by amazing arrangements, like flute (Naveen Kumar) and tablas and whatnot. The guitars (Pawan Rasaily) are great and play an important part in making the song what it is, beautifully unique. There is a breathtaking flute solo in the second interlude, which is worth dying for! Meet Bros have graced the composition with great beats, so much so that it almost starts resembling English pop songs in general, but then the oriental instruments like the flute (the way it’s played here) and the tabla, are what keep is from drifting off towards the West, and bring us back to India! Lyrics by Kumaar are beautiful too, or it must be the composition which makes them sound so good. Even the rap parts by Roach Killa are outstanding. Never have I praised Meet Bros so much, not even before their split from Anjjan and not even after. So, all it proves is that this song is the BEST from them out of all of their previous works! Great arrangements, beautiful composition, awesome vocals (and also, not relying on solely Arijit to take forth the song) give the song a unique touch!! The best of Meet Bros, the best of the album, and one of the best songs of the year till now! Also, a trendsetter for Meet Bros and the whole of Bollywood!! Waiting for more like this from Meet Bros! Definitely a #5StarHotelSong!!

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Baaghi is definitely a mixed bag album. On one side, Amaal, as always, doesn’t disappoint and gives a soothing romantic melody, while on the other side Manj Musik fails miserably to create a catchy upbeat dance track. Where Ankit gives commendable stuff, stepping out of his comfort zone, Meet Bros score great with both of their songs! So I can’t really call any song bad as such, as each of them has their own strong parts. It is Meet Bros who take away the prize though, with one song that’s really good, and another that’s an example for all the other composers! Meet Bros continue to be on fire….!!! Along with Amaal, they make sure that this album isn’t as much a ‘baaghi’ (rebellious) as its title suggests!! 🙂

 

Final Rating for this Album: सा < रे < ग < म < प < ध < नी < सां

Note: The letter which is underlined is the final rating.

Recommended Listening Order: Girl I Need You > Cham Cham > Sab Tera > Agar Tu Hota > Let’s Talk About Love

 

Which is your favourite song from Baaghi? Please vote for the same below! 🙂 Thanks!

 

Next “dish”: Love Games, Chefs: Sangeet-Siddharth Haldipur