Daawat-e-Ishq: Music Review

  Starring: Parineeti Chopra & Aditya Roy Kapur

Music Composer: Sajid - Wajid

Daawat-e-Ishq, or Feast of Love, is a romance about a young saleswoman, Parineeti Chopra, and Aditya Roy Kapur, a charming young chef who woos her with his spicy kebabs and greasy naan. The music is composed by the Yash Raj banner favorite, Sajid-Wajid, who gave us Ek Tha Tiger, and just like other Yash Chopra films the standards are high for this one. This sweet romance brings in seasoned favorites like, Sonu Nigam, Sunidhi Chauhan, Shreya Ghoshal, and Javed Ali, who each have dozens of classic romance songs under their belt. Daawat-E-Ishq promises a lot more than it has to offer. 

Daawat-e-Ishq's album kicks off with a classical style qawwali title track that  has already been recently sending waves across Indian cinema. Daawat-e-Ishq ropes in Javed Ali in his comfort zone, utilizing all his vocal capacity with alaps. Tabla combines beautifully with harmonium among other  instruments to add further to the complexity of this song. This song tends to sound a little too much like a title track, as it is very conversational, making it a more situational number. However, as the song progresses, Sunidhi Chauhan jumps in and the pace increases. 3.5/5

Mannat, Daawat-e-Ishq's core song features Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal, and Keerthi. The instrumentals are richly done in this song, as the title song. However as rich as these instrumentals are, this song instrumentals are not multilayered, offering variety. Offering a touch of the Middle East, this is a Sonu song entirely, with bits and pieces of Shreya and Keerthi. This song is a little more serious in tone than one what expect from this type of romantic song, but nevertheless is a welcome addition to the soundtrack. 4/5

In the Mannat (reprise) Shreya Ghoshal and Sonu Nigam trade places. She is now the lead singer, and does a great job in Nigam's shoes. Sonu Nigam takes the backseat in this one, however it is still a fantastic song. Depending on your singer preference, either duet is good. They are both equals in vocal talent. 4/5

Sounding like a typical Holi song, Rangreli, brings in lots of traditional Indian instruments, like dhol, alongside brass instruments, and brings in a lot of scraps from the title track into the melody. The drumming is heavy, and Shreya Ghoshal's voice is playful and intertwines well with Wajid's voice. Although this song is a burst of fun, and has excellent use of instrumentals, there is nothing really distinct about this song in the end. 3/5

Shalmali Kholgade enters the Daawat-e-Ishq soundtrack with Shayarana. This female solo is the least intricate of all the songs in this music soundtrack. It is the typically strong female song we have seen from the Yash Raj Camp, like Jazba, though lacking the overall energy. The strange guitar beats, snapping, and Shalmali Kholgade's Western sounding singing when she says the "Shayarana ooo oo " hook, brings in a cheesy inspirational country hook into the song that make it sound very Western and contemporary, making it different from the rest of the soundtrack. 2.5/5

The music gets back on course once again with a rock infused classical song, Jadu Tone Waaliyaan by Shabab Sabri who does an excellent job of classical performance. The electric guitar portions seem to overwhelm the traditional portions, as well as the strange use of a saxophone midway. Not really a harmonious merging of East and West, but not horrible either. 3/5

The Daawat-E-Ishq instrumental is a good background music for the album, but is not something to focus on entirely for listening pleasure. It goes in too many directions to listen to alone. Although, it sounds less complex than the original song, it really doesn't offer anything for the listener to do anything with. 2/5

In the end, the Daawat-E-Ishq soundtrack is not really a feast of love, or a feast of superb music for that matter. It doesn't have horrible songs, but it doesn't really have enough good songs to be considered a remarkable album. For so many skilled singers and products, Daawat-E-Ishq's soundtrack did not live up to the Yash Banner expectations of good music.

My Picks: Mannat, Mannat (reprise), Daawat-e-Ishq

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Grand Masti: Music Review

Music Directors: Anand Raj Anand, Sanjeev, Darshan

Starring: Ritesh Deshmukh, Aftab Shivdasani, Vivek Oberoi

The music composers were obviously not serious when they composed songs for Grand Masti. There are only five songs on this comedy's soundtrack, and three of them are barely legitimate songs. For a sequel to such a successful comedy, we certainly expect better. Comedies aren't supposed to have amazingly ethereal soundtracks, but at least something along the lines of Ghanchakkar is expected.

Which gay bar should we hit next?

Grand Masti is off to a shaky start with the title track, Grand Masti featuring and composed by Sanjeev, Darshan. They sing alongside female vocalist, Payal Dev. The song begins with English rap and flows into Hindi. It begins to get irritating when they say "Grand Masti Grand Masti Pa Pa Pa Pa" over and over again, however the background beat is solid. 2/5

Zulmi Zulmi is sung by Mika Singh. This annoying countryish beats are as equally bad as Singh's drunken voice. The lyrics are jarring and the instrumentals are headache inducing. Nothing good here. 2/5

Tu Bhi Mood Hai continues with the same kind of trumpet and flute instrumentals the rest of the Grand Masti has. These songs are hard to tell apart from another. This Anand Raj Anand composition is a duet between Wajid Khan and an unaccredited female singer. 3/5

Classy

Grand Masti (Remix) is takes the irritation of the original to the maximum capacity of horribleness. Its just upsetting and techno. Nothing else to say.  1/5

Grand Masti (Mashup) isn't even a real song. Horrible horrible mix of all the songs together. No. 0/5

In the end, Grand Masti is a grand failure. It's like the composers put no real thought into creating a meaningful soundtrack. All of the songs melt into each other to form a huge pool of disaster. There is next to nothing redeeming about this.

Was this soundtrack as bad as I make it seem?

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