This year promises a lot of powerful female-led films in Bollywood. Just earlier this week, the trailer for Vidya Balan’s Begum Jaan and the first look of Sridevi’s Mom were released. And shortly, we can look forward to the release of Anaarkali of Aarah starring Swara Bhaskar as a street singer/dancer from Bihar, and Naam Shabana , a spin-off of the successful 2015 film Baby . While Rohit Sharma composes the music for the former, Rochak Kohli and the Meet Bros have done the latter. Understandably, musical expectations are much higher from the former, compared to the action thriller.
Anaarkaliof Aarah
Given the setting of the film, it isn’t surprising that songs from the soundtrack largely carry a rustic and raunchy tone. The music is mostly in Bhojpuri, keeping in mind the film’s locale. First of the songs is ‘
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Swati Sharma, who made her debut two years ago with ‘
The album’s most mainstream, commercial song comes from Sonu Nigam in the form of ‘ Mann Beqaid Huva ’. Despite sounding familiar, it’s still pleasantly engaging. The two bonus tracks at the end, ‘ Hamre Jobna Pe ’ by Sonali and ‘ Laal Laal Cheekwa ’ by Rohit, are short and could easily be mistaken for improvised efforts.
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Top Recos: ‘ Badnaam Jiya De Gaari ’, ‘ Sa Ra Ra ’, ‘ Aye Sakhi Ooh ’
Composer: Rohit Sharma
Lyricists: Ravinder Randhawa, Prashant Ingole, Avinash Das, Dr. Sagar JNU, Ram Kumar Singh
Naam Shabana
The four-song soundtrack starts off with Rochak Kohli’s remixing skills on Bappi Lahiri’s ‘ Zubi Zubi ’ which has been ‘inspired’ by Modern Talking’s ‘ Brother Louie ’. Assisted by a commendable vocal effort from Sukriti Kakar, the song seems like one of more tolerable remixes in recent times. Kohli’s other songs are more subdued, but predictable. The singers help mitigate that familiarity to an extent. For instance, Sunidhi Chauhan on the inspirational ‘ Zinda ’ and Shreya Ghoshal on the melancholic ‘ Rozana ’ deliver great vocals, but the songs can get daunting. And lastly, the Meet Bros deliver their usual dance floor-friendly sound in ‘ Baby Besharam ’, sung by an energetic Jasmine Sandlas.
Naam Shabana
Top Recos: ‘ Rozana ’, ‘ Zubi Zubi ’
Composers: Rocha Kohli, Meet Bros
Lyricists: Manoj Muntashir, Kumaar