Band Baaja Baaraat Music Review: A Party Through and Through

The big fat Indian wedding is a recurring motif of Bollywood cinema. And now, it seems, Yashraj is getting technical with the subject.

Band Baaja Baaraat, written and directed by debutant director Maneesh Sharma, who earlier assisted on Yashraj's Fanaa and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, revolves around Shruti Kakkar and Bittoo Sharma, seemingly India's #1 wedding planners, played by Anushka Sharma and debutant Ranveer Singh respectively. The film is due out in the second week of December, just in time for the peak of the Indian wedding season.

Musical duties on the soundtrack are handled by Salim Sulaiman, who have worked on over half a dozen films for the Yashraj banner, while Amitabh Bhattacharya makes his lyrical contributions.

The album opens with a cracker of a track in "Ainvayi Ainvayi". Starting up with a great Indian rhythmic hook arranged over electric guitar underlays, the track grabs one from the word go. Salim Merchant himself accompanies Sunidhi Chauhan on vocals on this ultra energetic percussion led opening number. Amitabh Bhattacharya's quirky lyrics, melded with the catchy arrangement, set the tone for the album. The track is reprised in a remix, later on the album, with Salim being replaced by Master Saleem on vocals. Abhijit Vaghani's Dilli Club take on the track is just as foot tapping as the original and has all the makings of the next big club staple.

The next entry on the album, "Tarkeebein" takes the energy down a notch. A heavy bassline, percussions and a tune that could get stuck in your head, the track is essentially Rahman esque in its sound, even going so far as to feature Rahman regular Benny Dayal on vox with Salim; the unconventional arrangement and unexpected hooks lend this track a great vibe.

"Aadha Ishq" takes the pace of the album still lower and can best be described as staid. While Shreya Ghoshal is great as usual and the melody connects with the romantic feel of the song, one feels that the track is liable to get lost in the overall energy of the album.

Benny Dayal and Himani Kapoor pull up the tempo again with their duet "Dum Dum". The track carries through with an extremely interesting mix of sounds featuring everything from the sarangi to electric guitars, expansive percussive lines and a chanting chorus line. Abhijit Vaghani also gives the track a superb techno sufi twang in his remix later down the playlist, replacing Dayal with Sukhwinder Singh.

Lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya himself steps up to the mic along with Salim Merchant on "Mitra". The track has an endearing pop rock feel to it and is beautifully arranged with crisp percussive lines running right through.

Given the fact that the film revolves around marriages, "Baari Barsi" is only an appropriate addition to the soundtrack. Bhattacharya gives a funny lyrical twist to this staple of the classicPunjabi wedding, while the Merchant brothers give it a drum 'n bass feel with their arrangement that melds the traditional with the modern. While Harshdeep Kaur is on vocals for the core of the track, Labh Janjua carries the Bhangra hooks of the track and Salim Merchant comes in for a quick few lines as well.

And finally, there's "Band Baaja Baaraat", the actual theme song of the film. Featuring the Sagar Band, an actual wedding band, the track fairly captures the feel of a real band, baaja and baaraat. Though it is liable to sound grating on repetitive listening, the track smartly runs just under two minutes and is quite an enjoyable listen. Salim Merchant and Shraddha Kapoor stand in on vocals for this short ditty.

While Salim Sulaiman come through for Yashraj with the sheer foot tapping energy of most of the tracks, credit is also due to lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya for bringing in the quirk quotient on the album. The album also sees Salim Merchant increasingly step onto the composer singer path, seeing as how he is present on five out of nine tracks and does a great job of it all. Overall, one must admit that the soundtrack quite lives up to its Band Baaja Baaraat tag.