PUNJABI MEDIUM!! (HINDI MEDIUM – Music Review)

Music Album Details
♪ Music by: Sachin-Jigar, Guru Randhawa, Rajat Nagpal, Intense, Sukhbir & Abhijit Vaghani
♪ Lyrics by: Priya Saraiya, Kumaar, Guru Randhawa, Arjun & Ikka
♪ Music Label: T-Series
♪ Music Released On: 21st April 2017
♪ Movie Releases On: 19th May 2017

Hindi Medium 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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Hindi Medium is an upcoming Bollywood comedy film, starring Irrfan Khan, Saba Qamar and Deepak Dobriyal in lead roles. The film is directed by Saket Chaudhary and produced by Dinesh Vijan, Bhushan Kumar and Krishan Kumar. The film follows a young couple who wish to enter the English-speaking society for the sake of their daughter. After watching the trailer, this one looks like it will be a laugh riot, and I’m eagerly waiting for it. The music for this one is given by Sachin-Jigar, Guru Randhawa, Rajat Nagpal and Abhijit Vaghani. While Sachin-Jigar have worked hard and given two new and original songs, the rest have “remade” hit pop songs, and you’ll get to know soon why “remade” is in inverted commas.

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1. Suit Suit

Singers ~ Guru Randhawa & Arjun, Original Composition by ~ Intense, Music Recreated by ~ Guru Randhawa & Rajat Nagpal, Lyrics by ~ Guru Randhawa & Arjun

“Oh tenu suit suit karda!” 

– Guru Randhawa

The album starts with something that T-Series are experts at. Recreating old songs. After butchering many songs from Bollywood, T-Series now expands its reach to the Punjabi pop singles they have released earlier. And thus, we get “Suit Suit”, by Guru Randhawa and Arjun (the guy who shot to fame by reprising Bollywood songs into English in a quite ludicrous manner). The song is as typical as a Punjabi pop song can get and after getting to know the soul of Punjab in ‘Phillauri’, thanks to Shashwat Sachdev and Jasleen Royal, we are just taken back to the fake Punjabi feels. Nobody’s going to get tricked into thinking this is what Punjabis listen to all day. Well, maybe at weddings. Anyhow, the song is not even eligible of being called a remake, because it is the exact same thing copied and pasted here, with faster beats. I heard the original, and it has such slow beats, it sounded odd. Thankfully, the new song has faster beats to go with the song. I must admit that the song itself is catchy and my hatred towards the act of remaking songs cannot make me deny that. The beats are something on the lines of the EDM beats that many American artists just add into their songs by default, even before constructing the tune and all. The clichéd tune, originally composed by someone going by the name of Intense, is far from intense, but it is interspersed with Arjun’s English rap, which seems to sound the same in all his songs. In fact, he starts the song off, and that’s how all his female fans will instantly be drawn into the song. The interludes comprise of a weird sound that sounds something like a pig squealing. The hookline is one of the most commonplace tunes, but it still manages to be catchy. Sadly, the rest of the song just sounds repetitive. There’s an impressively rapid rap by Arjun in the second interlude though. I don’t really know what Guru Randhawa and Rajat Nagpal have done by way of recreation here, because everything just sounds the same, but then, they have done the monumental task of making the beats faster. And then again, I am not so well-versed with the original song. Guru Randhawa’s voice is so rustic and earthy, it would “SUIT” a rustic folk song, and I would love to see him do that! As for the lyrics, the hookline is the only reason I can see, for the song to be added in this film — Saba Qamar’s character in the movie must’ve worn a suit to try to fit in with the elite society. But then, couldn’t Sachin-Jigar have made an original, even comedic and better, song for that situation!?

Rating: 2.5/5 {Only for the beats and the hookline!}

 

2. Hoor

Singer ~ Atif Aslam, Backing Vocals by ~ Dawn Cordo, Arun Kamath & Shambhavi Singh, Music by ~ Sachin-Jigar, Lyrics by ~ Priya Saraiya

“Lafzon ke haseen, dhaagon mein kahin,
Piro rahaa hoon kabse main huzoor,
Koshishein zara, hain nigaahon ki,
Tujhe dekhne ki ho khataa zaroor,
Deewangi kahoon isey, ya hai mera fitoor?
Koi hoor, jaise tu!”

– Priya Saraiya

Sachin-Jigar step into the album with the second song, a romantic song with a heavenly Qawwali-ish treatment. The song also brings together Atif Aslam and Sachin-Jigar yet again, after so many beautiful songs that trio has given us over the years. I can’t really say the same about this song though, unfortunately. The song starts with wonderful humming by an awesome backing chorus (Dawn Cordo, Arun Kamath & Shambhavi Singh) but when the actual melody sung by Atif begins, it loses you somewhere. Sachin-Jigar have constructed a very iffy composition there, something that leaves you confused as to whether you like it or not. No, I don’t mean it is bad at all! It is a lilting composition, with the words flowing into one another very freely, but the composition just didn’t connect with me, something I felt very guilty of, and odd about, because I loved that spectacular album of theirs, ‘Meri Pyaari Bindu’. The antara was something I could hardly pay attention to as it was not gripping. I kept waiting for that one part in the song that would have me hooked, but it never came. 😦 The few great things I can rave about in the song, though, were the arrangements. A wonderful harmonium-led (Rinku Rajput) portion starts off the song, with occasional tabla beats (Rupak Dhamankar), that sound marvellous. And then the piano (Rinku Rajput) and Drums (Lindsay D’mello) too, are wonderful. The guitars (Kalyan Baruah) that conclude the song sound amazing! It provides a nice lounge-ish feel, with the fusion of Classical and Western Contemporary. Atif’s vocals are great, and his trademark faltering voice infuses beauty into the vocals. He sings the high-pitched line in the hookline beautifully! I’ve already written about the beauty with which the backing vocalists support him. That leaves the lyrics by Priya Saraiya. These are amazing as well, aptly romantic. The hookline has been written very well! A song that excels in everything except the composition, which could’ve been much better compared to Sachin-Jigar’s previous compositions.
Rating: 3.5/5

 

3. Oh Ho Ho Ho (Remix)

Singer ~ Sukhbir, Original Composition by ~ Sukhbir, Music Recreated by ~ Abhijit Vaghani, Lyrics by ~ Kumaar, Rap Written and Performed by ~ Ikka

“Oh ho ho ho, oh ho ho ho, oh ho ho ho, oh ho ho ishq tera tadpaave!” 

– Kumaar

This song is like a bonus addition. Yeah, because it is just a remix (and a futile one too, at that) of a very famous Bhangra song, “Ishq Tera Tadpaave” by Sukhbir. And guess who’s the chosen one to remix it? Abhijit Vaghani. And guess what he does? Just adds a rap by Ikka somewhere in the middle, which makes the song sound vulgar, and he obviously adds a line about drinking. Who is going to listen to this song, when the original is still fresh in the people’s minds? If they wanted to make the characters dance to it in the film, they could’ve done so without adding a song in the album. I guess Abhijit has added extra beats, but it doesn’t really make a difference. And by the way, kudos to the way T-Series has named the song. “Oh Ho Ho Ho” is like the way I used to search on Google when I heard this song playing in weddings and didn’t know what it is! 😏 A song banking on the popularity of the original. 

Rating: 1/5 {including 0.5 as a bonus for at least choosing this song.}

 

 

4. Ek Jindari

Singer ~ Tanishka Sanghvi, Backing Vocals ~ Sugandha Date, Karishma Butia, Stiphen Ghorpade, Prateek Mane, Arya Mahale, Anica Chabra, Music by ~ Sachin-Jigar, Lyrics by ~ Kumaar

“Suraj jaise chamkenge, dekhe hain saddi ankhiyaan ne hai sapney ambraan de, eh sapney ambraan de,
Boond boond jodenge pal pal, door door beh jaayenge, eh naal samandaraan de, eh naal samandaraan de!
Assi, aithe khade, hai jaana pare,
Na kum humko tol!
Assi, zidd pe adde, junooni bade,
Eh dil ke ne bol!
Haan ek jindari meri, sau khwahishaan,
Ek ek main poori karaan,
Haan ek jindari meri, sau khwahishaan,
Mushkil humein rokna!”

– Kumaar

Sachin-Jigar get to wrap up this album, thankfully. And the song really does make for a grand finale! It starts with a vocal rhythm sung by the cute Tanishkaa Sanghvi, Sachin’s daughter, coupled with wonderful rhythms by Taufiq Qureshi, someone who always makes the song sound great when he works with Sachin-Jigar. The song is a motivational one, and stands true to its theme, with a hard-hitting rhythm and a composition that does succeed indeed to move you. The mukhda starts the song off on such a high level, that it must’ve been difficult to compose the rest of the song without letting that level drop. And I must say, Sachin-Jigar succeed in that mission exceptionally well. That neverending, breathless styled line in the mukhda is astounding! The two antaras that follow are amazing, the first being another “strong will and motivation” type stanza emulating the tune of the mukhda, while the second is a toned-down and calm one, a nice respite in an amazingly hard-hitting song. The “assi…” effect in the lines before the hookline is really intriguing, and Tanishka renders it with spunk. The hookline itself is so well-placed, and the chorus (Sugandha Date, Karishma Butia, Stiphen Ghorpade, Prateek Mane, Arya Mahale, Anica Chabra) joins Tanishka to make it sound more effective. The arrangements are electrifying, with the rock guitars, drums, and Taufiq Qureshi’s amazing percussion lifting up the already amazing composition manifold. Tanishkaa handles the composition with maturity and cuteness, a deadly combination. How cool is it that motivational songs sung by kids are the most motivational! 😄 Kumaar’s lyrics are some of the best lyrics by him this year, and maybe in his career. The song I was waiting for arrives at the end!

Rating: 5/5

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Hindi Medium is quite a decent album, overall. It is a Sachin-Jigar show all the way, and I wouldn’t have minded if the other two songs hadn’t been there. Anyway, those two are the reason this album will score very low. Though Sachin-Jigar leave me confused with one song, the other ones makes up for that completely. Abhijit Vaghani can keep on “remaking” songs, while Guru Randhawa will hardly be seen again in Bollywood, I guess, especially not as a music composer. They just added this song because they needed it. Anyway, since all the songs but one are Punjabi, why don’t we call the album Punjabi Medium? 😄

 

Total Points Scored by This Album: 2.5 + 3.5 + 1 + 5 = 12

Album Percentage: 60%

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: Ek Jindari > Hoor > Suit Suit > Oh Ho Ho Ho (Remix)

 

Remake Counter:

No. Of Remakes in 2017: 10 (from previous albums) + 02 (from Hindi Medium) = 12

Which is your favourite song from Hindi Medium? Please vote for it below! Thanks! 🙂