Ungli Music Review: One Of The Weaker Albums From The Dharma Stable

Emraan Hashmi officially enters Karan Johar’s territory with Rensil D’Silva directed Ungli which also stars Kangana Ranaut, Sanjay Dutt and Randeep Hooda. The film which purportedly carries a message on social awareness and social reform has its music composed by as many as four music composers – Sachin-Jigar, Salim-Sulaiman, Gulraj Singh and Aslam Keyi. Rensil D’Silva’s earlier venture with Dharma productions, Kurbaan had a wonderful soundtrack though the movie failed to score at the box office. Therefore, based on the earlier experience, one can surely expect a decent score in Ungli too despite the album having a diverse mix of music composers. So let us see how the album has fared vis-à-vis our expectations.

Dance Basanti is already out on your television screens and this ‘item number’ featuring Shraddha Kapoor has already begun its ascent on the popularity charts. And why not? This dance track has the kind of energetic and foot tapping beats that will make it a popular track on the dance floor. Of course, that is not to say that the composition (Sachin-Jigar) is anything extraordinary. Rather, this dance number is quite similar to other such songs from this genre. And the lyrics do not fare any better with words like ‘kinky’ and ‘funky’ used to good measure making us wonder as to how far lyricists will go to make their song a hit with the young crowd. The one thing which really makes this song click is the spirited singing of the lead singers – Vishal Dadlani and Anushka Manchanda, who really go all out to make this song a truly enjoyable experience.

Relative newbie composer Gulraj Singh composes and sings the soft romantic number Pakeezah and comes out sounding reasonably satisfactory. The tune is quite mild and easy-on-the-ears but its structure is somewhat a little scattered. The song, in fact, meanders so much that it kind of loses steam midway and therefore, there is a very good chance that the listener might lose interest in it. On the plus side though, is the fact that despite getting behind the mike for the number, Composer Gulraj Singh is not so bad and in fact, his soft vocals seem to gel quite well with the composition.

Aadarniya Ungli is a satirical take on corruption in the system and literally shows ‘the finger’ to the society and its ills. Vishal Dadlani is yet again behind the mike and his feisty rendition of a mediocre composition (Gulraj Singh) is the only takeaway from this song. Neeti Mohan provides him good support but ultimately the tune with its wide array of sounds is nothing short of cacophony and therefore, is a major disappointment.

The mood shifts to one of melancholy and soul-searching in Auliya which has Armaan Malik taking centre-stage for this Salim-Sulaiman composed number. While the lyrics are quite poignant and moving, somehow one gets the feeling that the singing does not have the same emotional depth. Ditto to the tune, which is actually not bad, but at the same time, is not good enough to make a strong impact on the listener.

It is quite obvious that the final track of this album, Ungli Pe Nachalein is purely a song added at the last minute to capitalize on Emraan Hashmi’s on-screen image and the video of the song stands testimony to the above mentioned fact. The composition by Aslam Keyi is alright and might have its share of fans during the movie’s run in the theatres. But its long term sustenance is quite doubtful indeed.

To sum up, Ungli as a standalone soundtrack is a disappointment for sure. Of course one can argue that the album does have its share of above average and peppy numbers but when measured against the fact that despite the presence of four music composers, there is not a single memorable track in the album. Add to that, the fact that this is a soundtrack from Dharma Productions who have been known to have quality music in their films and also that their last collaboration with Director Rensil D’ Silva was the musical masterpiece Kurbaan, Ungli’s album is a downer indeed.

Our Picks: Dance Basanti and Pakeezah