Music Album Details
♪ Music by: Sachin-Jigar, Guru Randhawa & Akash D
♪ Lyrics by: Guru Randhawa, Priya Saraiya, Benny Dayal & Akash D
♪ Music Label: T-Series
♪ Music Released On: 20th July 2019
♪ Movie Released On: 26th July 2019
Listen to the songs: JioSaavn | Gaana
Buy the songs: iTunes
Arjun Patiala is a Bollywood spoof comedy film starring Diljit Dosanjh, Kriti Sanon and Varun Sharma in lead roles. The film is direccted by Rohit Jugraj and produced by Dinesh Vijan, Sandeep Leyzell, Bhushan Kumar and Krishan Kumar. The film’s first poster credited Sachin-Jigar for its music, but that culminated in the album jukebox crediting Guru Randhawa and Akash D alongside the duo. How they ended up there and for what, let’s see!
It’s not as much surprising as it is sneaky of the music label to add Guru Randhawa as a co-composer, along with the already capable Sachin-Jigar, in two songs out of their four. Starting with that note, we get a very dull sad song, Dil Todeya, the name of which is quite representative of my feelings after learning that there’s another person along with Sachin-Jigar composing some songs of the film. The song is the standard-issue Punjabi pop song, and surprisingly the only song sung by leading man Diljit Dosanjh, though the rest of the soundtrack does leave plenty scope for him to have sung! Nothing in the composition or arrangements shows that the song involves Sachin-Jigar in any way, but ironically the arrangements are solely by Sachin-Jigar, so maybe they are deliberately this typical, given that the movie is a spoof after all. The only interesting element in the song perhaps is the Qamancha/Kamancheh, an Armenian bowed string instrument related to the violin, performed here by Rasalila, and it sounds wonderful. The lyrics by Randhawa again are standard Punjabi pop sad song lyrics. Diljit renders the song with the required sorrow, but it’s nothing compared to his previous songs in ‘Udta Punjab’, ‘Phillauri’, ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’ and ‘Soorma’. Coincidentally, Sachin-Jigar were the first Bollywood composers to use his voice, back when he didn’t act in Bollywood, in ‘Pee Pa Pee Pa Ho Gaya’ (Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya) way back in 2012! Ah well, something has to be sacrificed at the altar of including Guru Randhawa as co-composer. Another coincidence (?) was that Guru’s debut or big break in Bollywood was in an album for which Sachin-Jigar did the original songs — ‘Hindi Medium’, which leads to the third coincidence — this film too was a Maddock+T-Series joint production! Want another coincidence? Sachin-Jigar were the first composers to use Randhawa in a film song, as a singer for a song he didn’t compose, ‘Lagdi Hai Thaai’ (Simran)! Phew!
The second song that the duo composes along with Randhawa though, fares much better, and this time, I contradictorily feel like the song sounds nothing like Guru Randhawa in terms of composition or arrangements! Also, when T-Series released the song, titled Main Deewana Tera as the opening promotional song for the film, they didn’t mention Guru as a composer. Some shady business going on in the crediting of this album. Anyway, Sachin-Jigar (and Guru Randhawa, apparently) create a funky party song (marketed as ‘Ek aur Remix gaana’ with the word ‘remix’ slashed out and replaced with the word ‘Original’) which throws you back to the duo’s own ‘Yeh Jawaani Teri’ (Meri Pyaari Bindu), what with the whole R.D. Burman sound (the second soundtrack in a row which harks back to Burman’s music, without remixing it!) It also sounds like Pritam’s ‘Badtameez Dil’ (Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani) owing largely to the wonderful trumpet solos (Kishore Sodha). Guru Randhawa sounds thankfully well in this one, and along with Sachin-Jigar, he manages to concoct a catchy composition, writes functional but stale lyrics and to top it all, Nikhita Gandhi ends the song with her stray line.
Sachin-Jigar’s third song is one that sounds entirely like something Guru would compose, but to my surprise (or no surprise at this point, since we’ve seen two songs composed by both of them together, both of which sound nothing like a collaboration between the two) Guru Randhawa isn’t a composer for this one! Crazy Habibi Vs Decent Munda ends up being catchy in parts only, Sachin-Jigar totally imitating Guru’s musical style in the beats, with a very heavy bass line in the hookline, which, by the way, has been composed very catchily. The other great attraction in this song is Benny Dayal’s Arabic interlude (which he has also written, apparently!) The song loses its appeal towards the second verse, though, but Guru’s rendition of Sachin-Jigar’s tune is not annoying, and thankfully keeps him out of his comfort zone, the high pitch, which unfortunately for his comfort, makes us uncomfortable as listeners.
Sachin-Jigar finally get one song without any apparent interference from the music label (except maybe choice of singer). Sachiya Mohabbatan turns out to be a song that seems like a mélange of two super-hit songs from Maddock Films’ last venture ‘Luka Chuppi’ — ‘Photo’ and ‘Duniyaa’. The tune resembles ‘Duniyaa’, while the arrangements resemble ‘Photo’. Again, the fact that the film is a spoof provides some background as to why the music too must have been made like this. Sachet Tandon, getting songs for other composers as a result of his ‘Bekhayali’ (Kabir Singh) gaining more popularity than its Arijit Singh variant, delivers the melody with finesse, his notes and the occasional grunge on point. The flute (Shirish Malhotra) and guitars (Kalyan Baruah) complement the melody well, and the trademark Punjabi pop beats make the song perfect as a spoofy one. The flute is actually what makes it sound like ‘Photo’ in the first place. Priya Saraiya, appearing in a Bollywood soundtrack after quite some time, pens a nice and sweet Punjabi piece, but nothing we haven’t heard before.
To end the album, we have the mandatory daaru from every film that contains a Punjabi lead character, and another mandate that dictates this song is that it is a T-Series Punjabi pop single by Akash D, who therefore becomes guest composer with the song Sip Sip, used as is in the album. Aditya Dev programs and arranges this one, in the most typical way imaginable, and Guru Bhullar along with the composer himself, renders the cheesy lyrics (also by the composer). The opening synth music especially is really banal, making you reluctant to continue at all. If you do manage to continue, however, you’ll quit soon anyway.
An album devoid of the usual quirks of a Sachin-Jigar album, maybe thanks to the dictatorship of the music label involved, this album does witness them give some temporarily enjoyable party tracks and one melodious romantic song, but nothing compared to their previous works with Maddock Films (Go Goa Gone, Happy Ending, Badlapur, Stree)!
Total Points Scored by This Album: 6.5 + 8 + 7 + 7.5 + 5 = 34
Album Percentage: 68%
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: Main Deewana Tera > Sachiya Mohabbatan > Crazy Habibi Vs Decent Munda > Dil Todeya > Sip Sip
Which is your favourite song from Arjun Patiala? Please vote for it below! Thanks! 🙂
Music Mastani 