Six years after it found a quirky makeover at the hands of Mikey McCleary, Laxmikant Pyarelal’s ‘ Hawa Hawai ’ gets another revisit from present day remix man Tanishk Bagchi. Though this is a more conventional remix relatively, ‘ Hawa Hawai 2.0’ (should have been called 3.0, ideally) is a pretty entertaining effort from the man – it helps that he retains Kavita Krishnamurthy’s vocals (and laces it with Shashaa Tirupathi’s voice) and throws in a lot of horns, as was the case in the original song, thereby maintaining the overall jollity at the same level. Even the rap (thankfully not by the usual folk) is well placed. The other remix of the album comes from Guru Randhawa and Rajat Nagpal – ‘ Ban Ja Rani ’ that is a take on Randhawa and Haji Springer’s 2016 single ‘ Tu Meri Rani ’. Sadly, there’s nothing special going on here (or in the original), a fluffy formulaic tune with middling arrangement and jarringly processed vocals.
Coming back to Tanishk Bagchi, the composer also gets an original song, written by his frequent partner Vayu Shrivastava. It is Vayu’s Hinglish lyrics that are the soul of the light-hearted ‘Manva Likes To Fly’ that Bagchi sets to a wacky electronic based arrangement. Shalmali Kholgade too is in her elements rendering the song; that brief switch to the lower register is a neat touch. Amartya “Bobo” Rahut’s ‘Farrata’ is another short musical burst of energy (Rahut was also the composer for Tu Hai Mera Sunday that came out last month; good to see the man active in the industry again) delivered well by Armaan Mallik and the kids’ chorus. The soundtrack’s best song comes from indie musician Santanu Ghatak – the beautiful folksy melody ‘Rafu’ that is also written by Ghatak himself, the man proves to be a deft hand at both trades. As an aside, it’s great to note the number of composer-lyricists on the rise in recent times. The song, given a mellow, unplugged-like treatment (guitars by Anup Satam), is sung superbly by Ronkini Gupta (who has previously done some splendid singing for Sagar Desai’s soundtrack for Ankhon Dekhi ).
Tumhari Sulu ’s soundtrack is consistently light and engaging, except for the one Punjabi song.
