Composers Sachin-Jigar have had a pretty long and fruitful association with writer-director-producer duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. (aka Raj-D.K.), a partnership that dates back to one of the composer duo’s earliest films and Raj-D.K’s first hits, Shor In The City (2011). And this year they come together for the horror comedy Stree , working with lyricist Vayu who they first collaborated with for their last project A Gentleman (2017). While the Sidharth Malhotra-starrer was the relative runt of the litter musically, the songs did end up gaining big time from the way they were employed in the film. Let’s see how Stree has fared.
Some of the best music to come from the Sachin-Jigar and Raj D.K. team have been quirky kind, topped of course by Go Goa Gone (2013). In Stree too, owing to the film’s genre, there is an whimsical vein running through the whole soundtrack. And Vayu is the perfect lyrical partner for the task, given that the man has aced the genre on multiple occasions in the past. The combined eccentricity comes out best in ‘Milegi Milegi’ , a song that is supremely engaging despite evoking memories of Pritam’s 2012 hit ‘Pungi’ from Agent Vinod (2012) and not just for the fact that Mika Singh leads the vocals in both cases. The déjà vu aspect has a more telling effect in the second song, the catchy ‘Kamariya’ . Sachin-Jigar and Vayu deliver their best in their third and last song for the album, the romantic ‘Nazar Na Lag Jaye’ . While the song itself is presented as a gentle, soulful piece (Ash King’s fine rendition and Kalyan Baruah and Shomu Seal’s plucked strings are key factors in conveying the same), Vayu’s words combine Hindi, Punjabi and English in a playful fashion.
It often accentuates the song’s charm with the linguistic contrast. Hilariously, after transitioning from a dialogue in the 1986 Nagina to a meme with Amrish Puri, ‘Aao Kabhi Haveli Pe’ becomes a song in Stree. On one hand, the song’s lyrics (co-written by Badshah and Jigar Saraiya) seemingly reference old songs and then also try to rhyme “lit AF” with “ASAP”. It’s wacky for sure, but there is only so far that can take you.
Stree has an entertaining soundtrack from Sachin-Jigar and Vayu whose main drawback is its familiarity.
