Bowled Out

The album opens with Besabriyaan, in the middle of which an electric guitar interlude merges into a string and wind section so abruptly that one wonders what happened. Armaan Mallik, the brother of the composer, whose voice has been used in three songs, makes a good attempt in this one. He sings in tune and does the best that can be done to a very ordinary composition. The grouse about this piece, however, is the repeated use of the word Besabriyaan. Besabriyaan isn’t a word. We are all for creating new vocabulary but this, used in almost every line, in an attempt to pass it off as an Urdu word, sounds jarring. Lyricist Manoj Muntashir should’ve known better. This is followed by a piano prelude that opens Palak Muchhal’s Kaun tujhe. Every breath and note Muchhal attempts sounds like that of a nervous Shreya Ghosal. She keeps in tune with well-crafted bass but a monotonous melody and more monotonous and cheesy words (Kaun tujhe pyaar karega, jaise main karti hoon), that can get Sakshi Dhoni to cringe, surface. Jab tak, which is another one from the marquee of five similar pieces, has a string section playing along a basic drumbeat with the vocals. Nothing to write home about. Addition of Arijeet Singh for Phir kabhi can’t do much either. It definitely is a notch better than other melodies, though.

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Parwaah nahi is the only piece in the album that stands out. Siddharth Mahadevan sings up a storm along with brilliantly played electric guitars and powerful drumbeats. The orchestration is brilliant but the composition itself doesn’t manage to stay. Padhoge likhoge by a very young Ananya Nanda and Adithyan A Prithviraj opens like Salman Khan, with a pungi and dhols building an interlude. The two kids sing this situational number, which doesn’t do much musically.

Har gali mein Dhoni, sung and composed by Kohli, comes close to what the album needed to be — anthemic, with a pulse. It begins slowly, finds a crescendo and has a thump. If Har gali is an example, then Kohli’s compositions could’ve worked better than most of the soppy ones that currently exist.