Udta Punjab Music Review: Eclectic And Edgy

Alia Bhatt follows up on her real and no makeup look from Highway to Abhishek Chaubey directed Udta Punjab. Co-starring Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor Khan, the film revolves around the rampant drug abuse that is prevalent in the state of Punjab. With such a dark theme, it is needless to say that the music for this film would also mostly have a dark and edgy feel to it and who better to deliver such an eclectic soundtrack than the man who is known for his unconventional compositions, Amit Trivedi! With lyricist Shellee and Varun Grover (and Late Shiv Kumar Batalvi for Ekk Kudi) for company, Amit ventures into varied genres such as Rap, Trance and Hip-hop for this soundtrack. So let’s see how this experimentation has turned out.

Amit Trivedi makes his intentions quite clear with the stylish Chitta Ve. The composition which opens with a superb rap by Babu Haabi gets an EDM makeover with Shahid Mallya and Bhanu Pratap taking over from Haabi and delivering a pulsating rendition. Composer Trivedi’s EDM arrangement is spot on with the composer ensuring that the electronic sounds do not drown out the singers’ vocals. The hook ‘udta Punjab’ is especially catchy and stays in your lips long after the song is over!

Da Da Dasse provides the perfect opportunity to Kanika Kapoor to let go off the Baby Dollhangover and boy does she deliver and how! Composer Amit Trivedi lets his creative juices flow freely with the composition being dominated by rap (Babu Haabi again!) and EDM (trip hop?) and of course the catchy hook which invariably makes you once again sing along with this one!

Late Shri Shiv Kumar Batalvi’s famous poem Ikk Kudi which has already had its share of recreated versions adds two more to the list with the Composer Amit Trivedi recreating the same for this album in the voices of Shahid Mallya and Diljit Dosanjh respectively. While Shahid Mallya’s version is light with minimal instrumentation thereby managing to capture the inherent melody of the song, it is the Reprise version sung by Diljit Dosanjh that has the rock element which is more people pleasing. But personally speaking, I would prefer the former version for the way in which Trivedi has managed to capture the beautiful melody of the song and of course for Shahid Mallya’s soulful and passionate singing.

Amit Trivedi takes over the mike for the grungy Ud-Daa Punjab along with fellow composer-singer Vishal Dadlani and the two sure have a blast behind the mike in this one. While Vishal puts his boisterous vocals to good use (including some cool rap), Trivedi’s lazy but powerful vocals complement the former and together they make this Varun Grover written track an engaging listen. Trivedi’s arrangement is literally the icing on the cake with the composer coming up with a delectable mix of electronic and folk sounds and the end result is simply brilliant!

Hass Nach Le did not really work for me despite it being a melody. This qawalli is led by some strong harmonium dominated arrangement and is quite earthy compared to the other tracks in this album. Shahid Mallya puts his heart and soul into his rendition but the end result is not really appealing.

Amit takes the EDM route once again for Vadiya which has the composer himself getting behind the mike. Despite the addictive chorus, the song as a whole does not really measure up due to the overdose of electronic sounds. Also one cannot help but feel that the composer’s vocals do not really go well with the nature of the song and therefore the end result is a sub-standard composition which does not engage the listener beyond its running time.

To sum up, the soundtrack of Udta Punjab is as expected – dark, edgy and unconventional yet quite appealing! Composer Amit Trivedi ventures into the road less travelled and still comes out with flying colours! Though lyricist Shelley’s Punjabi dominated lyrics is a bit tough to understand for a section of listeners, the songs still make an impact due to the ingenious and wildly imaginative compositions. Well done Amit!

Our Picks: Ikk Kudi, Chitta Ve, Ud-Daa Punjab and Da Da Dasse