Arjun Patiala ’s director Rohit Jugraj Chauhan has been active predominantly in the Punjabi industry for the past few years. Therefore, the movie’s Punjabi setting and thereby a dominance of Punjabi dance tracks shouldn’t come as a surprise in the soundtrack — the only element that gave me some hope is the presence of names like Dinesh Vijan and Sachin-Jigar.
With its rhythm and Kishore Sodha’s trumpets dominating the backdrop, one is quite likely to get reminded of ‘ Badtameez Dil ’ while listening to ‘ Main Deewana Tera ’, the only song in the album with a Hindi hook. An entertaining and very earworm-y song, delivered well by Guru Randhawa and Nikhita Gandhi. Randhawa is also lyricist and has co-composed the song with Sachin-Jigar. Though the duo was doing quite fine, and I wonder why they felt the need for a third composer in the equation now?
The threesome also shares credits for ‘ Dil Todeya ’, one of the slower melodic tracks of the album. Not that it is that great a composition, but it would definitely have sounded more appealing had the movie’s main man Diljit Dosanjh not been singing it.
The most interesting thing about the song was the use of a kamancha, the Persian bowed instrument. It has been played by Armenian musician Rasa-lila Buniatyan, who apparently lives in Mumbai, so I expect her to feature more often in film songs going forward.
Sachin-Jigar go, well, solo for two other songs, and ‘ Sachiya Mohabbatan ’ is one of the better songs from the album. Sung by Sachet Tandon (from another composer duo, Sachet Parampara), the breezy melody has a déjà vu feel, but is quite hummable and hence sticks. ‘ Crazy Habibi vs Decent Munda ’, marketed as the “mandatory item number”, is pretty much just that – a regular item number that has template Arabic elements (Benny Dayal in charge of Arabic lyrics and vocals) infused amidst the regular dance elements. Though Randhawa does not co-compose this one, he does write it and lead the singing.
Although not marketed, the album also has a mandatory ‘ daaru song’ – this one comes from a guest composer. ‘Sip Sip’ is a single that Akash D and Guru Bhullar released late last year on T Series’ Punjabi channel, the song is reused as is for Arjun Patiala . Once again, it’s standard middling Punjabi dance fare that’s far from memorable.
From what the trailer indicates, Arjun Patiala is not a movie that takes itself seriously. While I am actually waiting for a laugh riot, I wish they had taken the music more seriously. All in all, its unremarkable stuff from Sachin Jigar which is particularly disappointing, given their reduced output in recent times.
Top songs: ‘Sachiya Mohabbatan’, ‘Main Deewana Tera’
