Dhadak music review: Ajay-Atul manage to pull the right strings while reinventing their brilliant Sairat album

Karan Johar’s upcoming production, Shashank Khaitan’s romantic drama _Dhadak_ , is a Hindi adaptation of Nagraj Manjule’s 2016 Marathi sleeper hit Sairat. At the film’s trailer launch in June, Johar maintained that they are only attempting to pay tribute to the original film, rather than cashing in on its pan-Indian popularity. That is precisely why he roped in the music composer duo of Sairat, Ajay-Atul, to reinvent the tunes for Dhadak.  Since the lyrics were in Marathi, Amitabh Bhattacharya was brought on board to pen Hindi lyrics for the two Sairat hit tracks that have been adapted for Dhadak, in addition to the two original songs that Ajay-Atul have composed for the adaptation. The first original song is naturally the title track . Unlike the title songs of recent romantic comedies, this one does not skim the surface. It goes deeper than frivolous leg pulling and celebrates its old school hardcore romance. The tonality has an eerie resemblance to Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s signature ’epic romance’ compositions. [caption id=“attachment_4505287” align=“alignnone” width=“1200”]  Ishaan Khatter and Janhvi Kapoor in a still from Dhadak. YouTube[/caption] Ajay-Atul’s grandiloquent notes and Bhattacharya’s evocative lyrics make no bones about their intention to paint Dhadak as a romance “of those times”, building on the impact that Sairat created. Both Ajay Gogavale and Shreya Ghoshal’s vocals are exceptional as they play up the emotion to hit the pitch that the composition and lyrics aim for. Bhattacharya’s lyrics paint beautiful imagery in every line, and Ajay-Atul do complete justice to his imagination by lending his words the poise and throw that they demand. The second original song, ‘Vaara Re’, pales in comparison to the title track. Though Bhattacharya’s lyrics have a great redeemable quality about them, the composition is substandard. Though Ajay’s vocals elevate the stanzas, the chant-like chorus sounds borderline amusing. What could have helped this track, besides adjusting the gender imbalance from a feminist perspective, is a female voice. A female vocalist like Ghoshal could have added to the inherent tenderness of this song. The first adapted song in Dhadak is ‘ Pehli Bar ’, a carbon copy of ‘Yad Lagla’ from Sairat. For the uninitiated, ‘Yad Lagla’ is a brilliant composition by Ajay-Atul, dominated by operatic Western musical instruments like the violin and the cello. But what makes the song feel so Indian is the flute which sets the tone right at the start and pops up periodically as if hypnotising the orchestra to veer towards a certain mood. There is also a cameo by Indian instruments, a Nasik dhol and Chinmayee Sripada’s honey-coated humming, which has been retained in ‘Pehli Baar’. Ajay has lent his vocals to ‘Pehli Baar’ as well. His mischievous voice, accompanied by Bhattacharya’s rather well-adapted Hindi lyrics, make for an ideal falling-in-first-love song. Though Ajay-Atul wisely use the Punjabi dhol in certain parts of ‘Pehli Bar’, they could not have adapted ‘ Zingaat ’ without a liberal dose of the Nasik dhol. And as Johar pointed out at the film’s trailer launch, ‘Zingaat’ cannot be possibly changed to another hook word in Hindi. Bhattacharya also seems restricted to give his creativity a full throttle, owing to the predetermined lyrical arrangement. So Ajay-Atul stick to the Maharashtrian template in this track but despite it being an energetic number, the Hindi ‘Zingaat’ does pull back its punches. The conflict between originality and impact seeps into this dance number which never reaches the uninhibited madness that the original song stood for (or shook every body part for). Overall, Johar’s move to stick to Ajay-Atul for the Dhadak album turns out to be a wise decision. They retain the sanctity of the original album, while not completely resting their laurels on the same. Besides minor yet creative tweaks to the two adapted songs, they unite their energies with Bhattacharya and Ghoshal to come up with a title song that is at par with the original album. Listen to the entire album of Dhadak here.

Dhadak stars Ishaan Khatter, Janhvi Kapoor and Ashutosh Rana. It is co-produced by Dharma Productions and Zee Studios. It is slated to release this Friday on 20 July. (Also read — Janhvi Kapoor on carrying Sridevi's legacy with Dhadak: Won't be satisfied if I just live off my parents)