Music: GV Prakash Kumar
Lyrics: Shirish Kunder
Singers: Daler Mehendi, Sonu Kakkar, Udit Narayan, Adarsh Shinde, Sunidhi Chauhan, Sonu Nigam and Shweta Pandit
Rating: *
What do I say about a song that has lyrics that go ‘Dance karle English me aur naach le tu hindi mein’? If the intention was to induce humour, I completely missed it!
Music composer GV Prakash Kumar attempts to make Sing Raja catchy, but fails because of a mediocre tune and average orchestration. Daler Mehendi tries really hard to add energy – he screams out loud in the attempt – but nothing can make this one work. Tashan’s Dil dance mare, which is in the same quirky Hinglish zone, was way better!
Even as you make your way through one loud and over the top number, you are faced with another. Yeh Joker, sung by Sonu Nigam and Shweta Pandit has an odd pace and the dhols are over powering. The lyrics by Shirish Kunder sound forced.
Kafirana is the designated item song in the album. The folk beats and Adrash Shinde’s vocals give it the authentic Maharashtrian feel. Sunidhi Chauhan is powerful and the tune is catchy. What it lacks is the punch, mainly when it comes to the lyrics.
It feels good listening to Udit Narayan’s voice after a long gap but sadly, he gets a sloppy song in the form of Jugnu. Despite being a copy of the much-loved number The Lion Sleeps Tonight from the animated movie The Lion King, this track is yawn inducing. Kunder is slightly more poetic in this one with lyrics like sheeshe ke gubbare, but the words and the melody are quite out of sync.
Alien arrival is grandly composed. The drums and trumpets bring in a sense of urgency at the beginning, then the piano and violins add softness in the middle, before picking the pace up again. Decent song, but it sounds tribal in parts and royal Mughal in others. It definitely doesn’t suit the theme of aliens arriving. The use of more digital and futuristic sounds would have been more fitting.
Tears of Joker is an emotional instrumental track based on Jugnu with a nice combination of flute and piano. It’s good to listen to this one after going through the torture of the loud numbers. The tabla portions and the taans add a good touch. But that’s about it.
I expected the Joker soundtrack to be fun if not masterly, but the songs are neither catchy nor melodious. It was just totally listless.