It was the 2013 Vidyut Jammwal starrer, Commando that marked the debut of composer Manan Shah. The soundtrack had one composition that bore promise. In the six years that followed, the composer has had two letters added to his name (it is Mannan Shaah now), and unfortunately only as many albums added to his portfolio as well – the sequel to Commando , and Namaste England last year, which was a more promising affair. This year, Shaah is back with the latest in the Commando franchise. Although I’ve never watched any of the movies, am very curious now, given that the series is now three strong. This time round, Shaah gets just one half of the soundtrack; Marathi composer Vikram Montrose, who debuted in Bollywood with Sanju last year, gets the other half.
Montrose gets the heavier, more aggressive songs of the album. ‘ Tera Baap Aaya ’ is forgettable hip-hop based fare, especially for its middling, mostly silly rhymes. Farhad Bhiwandiwala, who writes the lines, also delivers them. His second song is slightly better, thanks to a catchy melody at the core, delivered by the spirited Sukhwinder Singh. Montrose handles the rapping here (and presumably the writing too), and this too is more listenable than the childish threats in the first one.
Winning melody
For the previous Commando installments, Shaah had delivered a competent melody apiece. In Commando 3 too, his first offering is a soothing melodic composition – written mostly in Punjabi (unsurprisingly) by Sahil Sultanpuri. ‘ Ankhiyan Milavanga ’ is sung by Arijit Singh and Malayali singer Sruthy Sasidharan, making her Hindi film debut, and both do a great job. I like the fact that composer chose to use a qamancha (played by Rasa-Lila Buniatyan) instead of a violin, as one of the leading instruments. Shaah gets Ankit Tiwari to sing ‘ Main Woh Raat Hoon ’, the soundtrack’s final entry. Not sure if it is Tiwari’s influence rubbing off on Shaah, but the song could pass off for something the former came up with. While the melancholic rock base, the slow build-up to a soaring finish is all very familiar, it’s also is one of the album’s better songs.
Shaah composes the singular number for the Commando 3 soundtrack that’s worth multiple listens.
On the bright side, at least the producers avoided including a recreation. To refresh your memory, for Commando 2 they recreated the Bhool Bhulaiya title song which was less than 10 years old at the time.
