Harry’s not a Brahmachari has a frenzied techno sound that sits well atop the essentially Punjabi tune; Jazzy B and Divya Kumar seem perfect for the high-pitched song. I’m sorry tumse pyar ho gaya rides on Nikhil Paul George’s awesome vocals (and ably supported by Neeti Mohan and Mili Nair), but yes, Pritam’s spritely tune and sound helps generously too. If Alam Lohar’s original was appropriated with ‘Vyah’ changed to ‘Pyar’ in Pyar Ke Side Effects, it is used as-is in Tauba main, with Vyah, here since this is Shaadi’s side effects and not Pyar’s! The sound is significantly spruced up, however, almost like a homage in the form of a remix, with Shahid Mallya, Poorvi Koutish and Alam rocking the rendition. Suchi and Arijit’s Desi romance is a punchy melody, but with familiar and predictable Pritam’ish hooks that continue to be thoroughly endearing. Farhan, like in Rock On!!, raises above his mediocre voice intelligently in Yahaan wahaan, aided generously by Pritam’s breezy melody. Swanand Kirkire’s enjoyable verses rule Bawla sa sapna, along with Mohit Chauhan’s always-likeable singing. Pritam is in particularly great form with the orchestration here… remains consistently delightful. The side effects of this soundtrack are more-than-adequately welcome!
Note: Beyond calling the first batch of uploads as ‘full album’ in the YouTube jukebox, it appears there are actually more songs in this soundtrack! There is something curiously called ‘The Original Song’ version of Harry’s not a Brahmachari as also another ‘remix’ version. Then, there is a Punjabi version of Tauba main, as if the earlier was not Punjabi enough. I wouldn’t have specifically written about these, but the Yahaan wahaan reprise (by Farhan, again) is something definitely worth mentioning, with it’s almost Metro-style sound that Pritam handles beautifully.
The other song worth writing about is the alternate version of Bawla sapna, sung by a young girl named Diva (the daughter of Bengali composer Rajesh Roy – of Pa Ma Ga Re Saa fame – and his singer-wife Pritha Majumdar) – an exquisite version of the song that Mohit has already aced! Finally, there is that other song by Farhan – Ahista ahista – composed by guest composer Mikey McCleary, with lyrics by Ankit Tewari. The rough edges in Farhan’s voice is a lot more pronounced here, compared to Yahaan wahaan – the pensive, violin-driven tune perhaps deserved a better-voiced singer than someone with a good sense of music but a very poor voice.
And no, this is not a 300 worder. This is a great album, no doubt, but if I were to add a vanity metric to it in Milliblog-ishtyle, this is a perfect 200 worder. If I had access to the full soundtrack in the first instance, I’d have tweaked the word count to fit 200.
Keywords: Shaadi Ke Side Effects, Pritam, 200, #200
