Johnny Gaddaar Music Review: A Totally Different Shankar Ehsaan Loy

Once in a while, a film's soundtrack catches you completely by surprise, and Johnny Gaddar is a very pleasant surprise. Shankar Ehsaan Loy have succeeded in creating what is one of the first soundtrack's comparable to the OST's of any Hollywood film, and something different from all of their previous work. Johnny Gaddaar is an album never before heard in Hindi films and it's this originality of style that makes it such an enjoyable listen.

The first track of the film is the title song, Johnny Gaddar. The electric guitar and rock percussions set the overall mood of the song, coupled with the vocals of Surah Jagan and Akriti Kakar, all giving it a very 70s Hollywood, rock feel. The lyrics have been penned by Jaideep Sahni who incidentally has written the screenplays of Khosla Ka Ghosla and Chak De India. This track sounds like it will be used in the background, as do most of the songs in the album. The title track itself sets the tone that this is not a conventional film album but will find huge appeal amongst the college going listeners.

Move Your Body is sung by Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy, with some English rap by Hard Kaur. This track begins with a very classic Hindi song feel which quickly gets transformed into a fusion number which combines a Punjabi and Hindi with English. The electric guitar is used along with an almost dhol like beat and it makes for a very enjoyable listen.

Dhoka, sung by Anousha Mani, with Shankar Mahadevan, Loy Mendonsa and Tarannum for support, starts with a different feel all together. This one sounds like a situational song or one which may also be used for the background. An edgy number, with a bit of a techno feel, this song will probably pick up more once the visuals are seen. Anousha has a pleasant voice which suits the mood of the song well.

Johnny in the House is a remix of the title track and has been made a bit pacier than the original but is otherwise similar and an equally enjoyable listen.

Move Your Body Phaat Mix is a remix of Move Your Body and will be DJs favourtires to get people onto the dance floow.

Johnny Breakbeat Mera Naam is tribute to the original Johnny Mera Naam in a very unconventional fashion. A wild mix of electronic sounds and sounds and dialogues from the classic, this one is sheer madness with a truly unique composition.

Revenge of The 70s is an instrumental which begins with Dharmendra's dialogue and sounds like the background of films like Don, Great Gambler etc, typically used in that late 70s era, with emphasis on trumpets and trombones with some drum beats and a bit of guitar.

The Caper Begins takes you back into the Hollywood background score mold but only for a few seconds as it quickly joins the genre of the previous instrumental taking us back to the style of Bollywood films in the 70s.

Toss is a more contemporary instrumental number as compared to the previous two numbers with a definite western touch, but the track ends just as you start getting into the feel of it as it is less than a minute in length.

Confidence is another instrumental which takes us back to yesteryears with a bit of a Turkish music feel to it with the 60s style of orchestra followed by a brief electronic percussion mix.

Bhule Bisre Geet is a tribute to the songs of the 50s, 60s and 70s and hats off to Shankar Ehsaan and Loy for finding singers like Sabia Khan, Geetanjali and Swanand who slip into that era so easily. Without actually copying any classical number, this number recreates various moods and styles of music from this era without at all being a spoof. There is a bit of classic filmy Bollywood of the 50s, cabaret with a rock feel of the 60s (you can just imagine Helen and Shammi Kapoor in this one), and a very 70s Kishore Kumar style peppy number.

Johnny Gaddaar is an album which has more instrumental numbers that it does actual songs and one can't imagine that any of these songs will even be lip-sync numbers. Possibly setting the tone of the film, the music is very stylish, following a Hollywood background style, completely unconventional for Hindi films. If you appreciate something new and trend setting, this is one album to add to your collection, even though it may not find a lot of popularity amongst the masses.