Let's Get Grooving
By Reflections, MovieTalkies.com, 04 February 2013
4 / 5
ABCD, directed by choreographer
Remo D’Souza, is the first Indian dance film to be released in 3D. Produced by UTV, the film stars
Prabhu Deva in a key role. The music is by Sachin-Jigar and the lyrics are by
Mayur Puri. This being a dance based film, the expectation is that the album will have rocking tunes combined with peppy lyrics and the album delivers on both counts.
The album opens with a devotional number Shambhu sutaya.
Shankar Mahadevan’s rendition is energetic and he is ably supported by
Vishal Dadlani. The superb cocktail of devotion and pace makes this song the perfect opening track for this album. This song reminds the listener of another very good devotional song
Deva Shree Ganesha from
Agneepath.
This is followed by
Bezubaan. Just one word to describe this number - AWESOME. The amalgamation of Western & Indian beats (including some thumping dance beats towards the end) makes this song the pick of the album. The song starts off on a slow tempo with Mohit Chauhan’s captivating vocals hooking the listener instantly from the word go and gradually builds up to a energetic mukhda with
Priya Panchal (earlier heard in films like
Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya &
F.A.L.T.U) joining the party. The mukhda segues to Western beats which seems to have been inspired slightly by Wannabe (Spice Girls). Next, it is Mohit’s turn to take over, what with the song returning to the haunting slow tempo which, in turn, is followed by the racy dance beats providing the perfect end to the song. This one is a winner all the way.
Next in line is Psycho Re, the “item” song of the album. The song brings four of India’s finest choreographers together for the first time on the silver screen – Prabhudeva, Remo D’ Souza,
Ganesh Acharya &
Saroj Khan. Since this film stars Prabhu Deva, it is a given that there will be a South Indian influence in the album. But it is indeed a pleasant surprise to hear the Tamil folk music based
Dappan koothu put to such good use.
Udit Narayan and
Mika Singh also join in to make this song a surefire chartbuster.
Mann Basiyo Saawariyo is next on line and you are hooked almost immediately.
Anushka Manchanda dazzles in this rock fusion track almost tailor-made for her voice. Excellent!
Up next is
Chandu Ki Girlfriend .This is a fun track with no pretenses whatsoever of delivering anything other than some timepass and it does just that with a host of singers including
Raman Mahadevan,
Jigar Saraiya, Divya Pushkarna, Sagar Kendurkar and Madhav Krishna having fun at the mike. On the downside though, this one just does not measure up to the high standards that we have come to expect from this album.
Just when we feel slightly letdown by Chandu Ki Girlfriend, up comes Duhaai which reinforces our belief that this album will be among the best of 2013, if not the best. Just like Bezubaan, this song too starts on a slow note and transitions beautifully into a scintillating rock number. Madhav Krishna does an amazing rendition of this song and is surely a singer to watch out for.
Sorry Sorry is an extremely quirky number with entertaining lyrics like “I come near, near, near, You go far, far, far “. It sure is an average song but the peppy lyrics coupled with the spirited rendition by Jigar Saraiya make it a fun song to listen to.
Kar Ja Re Ya Mar Ja Re seems more like an motivational song on the lines of
Chale Chalo from
Lagaan. Whereas Chale Chalo emphasized on the “Yes, We Can” attitude, this number emphasizes on the “Do or Die” attitude. The number endearingly enough starts off with a child’s laughter followed by an instrumentation of the “
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” lullaby which seamlessly progresses to hard rock, as has been the case of majority of the songs in this album. The music seems to be given more prominence in this short track with the vocals by
Suraj Jagan appearing as late as the 70th second of the 150 second track. But that is more than enough for the listener to get hooked onto this number.
The final track is again a surprise from
Sachin-Jigar in the form of
Sadda Dil Vi Tu which is a Punjabi rap styled devotional song sung by
Hard Kaur. Unconventional, yet apt, is how we can describe the presence of rapper Hard Kaur in this devotional rap song. In fact, if not for the presence of words like Ganpati Bappa Moriya and Shlokas like Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu towards the end of the song, this track could have easily been mistaken for yet another Punjabi Rap song (a genre which Hard Kaur is famous for).The success of this song lies in the fact that not only does it sound like a devotional song, the presence of rap makes it dance worthy – an underlying need for a movie based on dance.
Overall, ABCD has a superlative album with daring, original and unconventional music which is the biggest asset in a dance based movie such as this. Kudos to Sachin-Jigar for having the guts to come out with such radical and out-of the-box compositions in multiple genres, especially when the current trend is to play it safe.