After his debut award winning film, Snip, 17 years ago, Sunhil Sippy returns to the big screen with Noor starring Sonakshi Sinha in the lead.
The film is the second solo project for Amaal Mallik (after M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story ). Musically and lyrically, Mallik and Manoj Muntashir’s ‘ Uff Yeh Noor ’ harks back to Amit Trivedi and Javed Akhtar’s ‘ Suno Aisha ’ on some level. The track has the same cheery vibe as the same instruments have been used in the song. Noor seems to be a different kind of protagonist from Aisha though, judging by the not-so-charitable lyrics. The composer does a fine job with the arrangement, the second interlude is particularly well done with flutes, guitars and horns. Mallik’s brother Armaan heads the vocals, and having delivered similar sprightly songs well in the past, has little difficulty nailing this one.
The Mallik brothers aren’t the only siblings involved in the soundtrack; the composer also enlists the vocal services of twin sisters Sukriti and Prakriti Kakar. The former commendably renders the upbeat romantic piece ‘ Jise Kehte Pyaar Hai ’. The song follows a breezy pop format that, while engaging, offers nothing new. The other sister, Prakriti, shows off her chops on the soulful ‘ Hai Zaroori ’. Mallik gets the melody spot on and the sprawling atmospheric soundscape (with some nifty touches like the classical flavoured guitar) complements the tune wonderfully.
Remix of a remix
The latter half of Noor ’s soundtrack presents a remix and then a remix of that remix! The song in question is the R.D. Burman and Anand Bakshi track ‘ Gulabi Aankhen ’ from The Train (1970), which was originally sung by Mohammad Rafi. In Noor , the song becomes dance floor-friendly (read cacophonous).
Three good things
There isn’t much of a difference between the two remixes titled ‘ Gulabi 2.0 ’ and ‘ Gulabi Redux ’. Three good things about the song though: 1. Rapper Badshah is conspicuous by his absence. 2. The ‘ Gulabi Aankhen ’ reference is only restricted to the first verse and the rest is otherwise original (albeit still unappealing). 3. Tulsi Kumar’s voice has been unrecognisably processed, so much so that she actually sounds better than usual. Joining Kumar on vocals is Yash Narvekar and a lady rapper who is strangely uncredited.
With the exception of the remixed track, Mallik’s sophomore solo project is definitely better than his debut last year.
