Golmaal Returns — Music Review

The first thing that comes to my mind while listening to tracks from Golmaal Returns soundtrack is that it is an outright commercial album . The original Golmaal had songs that were written and composed by Vishal Shekhar and hence they were not only good on commercial scale but also had some nice lyrics and tunes to back’em up . This one though is composed by Pritam and has lyrics by the king of commercial lyrics , Sameer . Sameer if you don’t know has written most of the songs of the 90’s that had lyrics like ” Teri Naani Mari to mein kya karoo ” so don’t expect anything in terms of lyrics . Then on musical terms we have the Great Thief himself , Pritam , so expect a tune that you would have definitely listened to , somewhere else.

Moving on , the first track on the album is “Tha Kar Ke” whose meaning I don’t know . This one has been composed by Ashish Pandit and he grabs the popular tune of the Spanish song Gasolina by Daddy Yankee and mixes it with some strange lyrics by Sameer and creates a very commercial track . The lyrics are not that catchy and the tune and lyrics are bit of a mismatch . The track though is a commercial one yet it won’t get popular as a “Kajrare” of BAB or “Beedi Jalayle” of Omkara did . The song is majorly sung by Neeraj Sridhar and some bits are by other singers . The singers do a decent job but it is the tune and lyrics that spoil the whole show . The song on a whole can be listened only once , the music though would sound better on a good music system . Still , I would any day prefer listening to Gasolina instead of this one .

The next track on the soundtrack is “Vacancy” which is also the title track and has a very groovy tune attached to it . Lyrics once again have nothing new and are quite commercial . In fact , it is the English Lyrics by Neeraj Sridhar that have done most of the job . He has also sung the song and as usual is good at whatever he does and such songs suit only him among male singers .He is also backed up by Suzie Q. in some parts where she also does a fine job. I can now identify her voice anywhere especially after recent hit “Jee Karda” in singh is kinng . The song on a whole is good but not as good as the title track of original golmaal was . Anushka Manchanda got instant fame with that one . That one in my opinion was much cooler and groovier than this one yet this one is also not that bad .

Next comes “Tu Saala” by Anushka Manchanda . This one is again a completely commercial track and has nothing much to offer . Anushka sings well but the the music and lyrics on this make it an average track . I can’t write anything more about the track apart from the fact that it is a commercial track that would look bad even in the movie . Still , I don’t how the video on this one looks and probably the video might pull it off a disaster . The good part though is that it is just 3.5 minutes long and also quite pacy so won’t damage the pace of the film .

Next comes a song called “Meow” which is a little on the sensuous side so it would have a Hot video with one or all the leading ladies showing off their assets . This one again is a little different and not that commercial . Yet the lyrics and tune are not good enough to make it a popular song . The singing and lyrics by Suzie Q. are great and she does a very fine job . She can definitely sing English tracks with utmost perfection . She would have gone a long way if she would have been in West . Though she has sung many songs yet she has not got that perfect English track that could make her popular . This one has both Hindi and English lyrics and hence is a nice blend . Pritam does a good job but nothing extraordinary .

Then comes an English Version of Meow which is also almost same as the original one but has no Hindi lyrics in it . Suzie comes in full form in this one and gives a fabulous performance . In all , same as the original one with some extra English lyrics .

Then there are four remix tracks , the first one being the remix of Vacancy . The remix has been done K&G and they have not done much apart from just making it more pacy than the original one . The next remix is of Tha Kar ke which again is just a paced up version with some extra effects of the original one . This one has been remixed by DJ Amyth who has done quite a regular job and nothing new .Then there is a remix of Meow which has been done by DJ Nikhil and DJ Naved who have done a good job and given the song a different touch . This one is different from the original one and is also worth listening . The whole concept of remix is that it should sound completely different from the original and Nikhil and Naaved do a fine job in that respect . The last remix is that of Tu saala which has been done by Bunty Rajput who does nothing but add some bass to the original one .

After these there are also some bonus tracks which are the original songs from the previous golmaal and are much better than these . That album was much original and had some very nice tunes and lyrics that made it a quite popular album . We can still see the songs from the original one being aired on Music channels whereas these won’t even get one fourth of the airtime that those have got .

In all , the album is commercial one and has only two songs , Vacancy and Meow which are worth listening . The two that I have mentioned are also good comparatively and are just ordinary in general sense . The lyricist has not done much hard work and even the music director has done quite usual job .

Album Rating : Two out of Five Stars ; Commercial and quite a disappointment as compared to the soundtrack from the first Golmaal .

Hulla — Movie Review

This week three small budget films have released together , Saas Bahu aur Sensex , Welcome to Sajjanpur and Halla . If you look carefully all of these films have been distributed by three big names in the industry like Big Pictures , UTV Pictures and the latest entrant , world heavyweight , Warner Bros . This coming together of three heavyweight production houses for very small budget and simple looking films gives a glimpse of Positive future of Film Industry where probably talent and content would be more important than Glitz and Glamour .

Well , talking of Halla which has been produced by Handmade films India which also produced the comic hit Bheja Fry last year . That one was by Sagar Ballary and this one has been directed by Jaideep Varma . Hulla as the name suggests concerns the noise that any Metro citizen deals with and in a way makes a point that how a small issue can cause so many big problems in our lives . The story mainly focuses on two characters RajPuri who is a share broker played by Sushant Singh and a small trader which has been played by Rajat Kapoor who lives in the same building where Sushant also moves in.

Sushant is a share broker who makes some decent money as a share broker and lives a typical metro life along with his wife played by Kartika Rane who is from a rich family . They move into this new apartment and in this new building and there’s a watchman that blows whistle at night which causes a sleeping problem toSushant alone . Sushant asks the poor watchman to stop blowing the whistle at night so that he can sleep but he says to him that he can’t do so because he has strict orders from the Head of the society . ThenSushant decides to ask the Chairman of the society Rajat Kapoor to ask the watchmen to stop doing so . But Rajat insists to him that it is important for the security of the building and only he is having problem in the entire building so he can’t stop that just for the sake of one person .Sushant tries too hard to sleep but he is not able to do so . Every now and then he tries with all his efforts to stop the noise so that he can sleep but he fails . He psychologically gets affected due to the whole noise thing and even a little noise starts irritating him . Due to lack of sleep his work starts getting affected and he under performs at his office . His in laws being rich also don’t consider him as a good professional person and always try to demoralize him .Kartika as a good wife supports Sushant in all possible ways but since his problem gets more psychological than an actual one she also starts getting irritated of him .

On the other hand Rajat who is a very small trader is a lower middle class person and he tries very hard and works on his principles but fails to generate a good income for his family . His wife having dreams like that of a typical house wife ,  keeps nagging him from time to time .Rajat invests in Shares also to earn some extra income but nothing much happens over there too . He is proud to be the Chairman of the society and his wife also gets a little happiness in that respect . He struggles too hard in life but is a person who has never compromised on his morals to get some extra wealth . But he too , as time goes by and under the pressure of doing well compromises on his principles and goes a little out of the way to earn some money . He earns money but still is not as rich or educated asSushant is and hence has certain differences with him .

The third person that plays an important character in the film is a Watchman who is a very poor retired army man . He represents that section of society which is helpless and can’t take any decisions on their own . They just follow orders and in a way their entire lives are in hands of their respective bosses . The poor watchman gets trapped betweenSushant and Rajat and just has only one thing on his mind that he doesn’t lose his job . His job is the only support in his life and he cannot survive without it . This character also depicts the poor condition of our soldiers and how they can not even generate bare necessities aftertheir army life .

One small incident happens and the lives of all the three characters gets affected in a big way . The dreams of a happy family and high earning which are the dreams of any average Indian family gets shattered and the worst that gets affected is the Watchman . This is the case in our society from always . It is the decisions that a person above you takes and you are the one that have to pay for it along with him . The whole Whistle blowing incident is just the backdrop but what the Director mainly wanted to convey was the state of our society and its dreams and aspirations .

During the starting scenes of the film I observed that in Sushant’s apartment you can clearly see a DVD of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro kept in the shelf . And Hulla is exactly like that one . In Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro also director Kundan Shah depicted the life of the common man in our society and showed his helpless condition . He also used Comedy as a backdrop to show the reality of our society and how people instead of fighting against the problems should learn to adapt themselves along with them to live a happy life because if you try to fight against it you are the one who will get affected the most . That movie released in 1983 and exactly 25 years later the situation is still the same in India . Hulla also uses Humour to show us the reality of our society .

Talking of Acting , Sushant and Rajat , both are fabulous actors undoubtedly and hence give a very fine performance . Just observe the way Rajat is sitting in his very first scene and you would realise how great an actor he is . He plays the role of a common man in a great manner and gets into the skin of the character . He is one of the best actors today in our Film Industry and he deserves an award if you ask me for his performance . He is always ignored when it comes to Awards . Sushant gets a complete role to play after a long time and he gives his best . He very well portrays the role of a person who struggles with his problems when nobody is supporting him and how things get out of his hands . There is a very small role of Gujju played by Vrajesh Hirjee which is quite funny and he also acts very well . The actor who acted as watchman has also given a very fine performance and he has done full justice to his character . You feel sympathised with his character all throughout . Kartika also plays her role quite well and she should act more often .

The script and Direction by Jaideep Varma is great but the screenplay is a little weak . The movie is much on the slower side and has no commercial elements in it so only multiplex audience will love it . The people at large won’t watch it in the cinema halls but that doesn’t take anything away from the film . It is a fine piece of Cinema that is also meaningful and at the same time also quite entertaining . Such films don’t come often and people should appreciate such films . The Music by Indian Ocean is also great and suits the film . Overall , the film is a nice mixture of Humour and Realism and would interest only to a few cinema loving audience . Still , it is a fairly entertaining film and even general audience won’t mind watching such a film .

Movie Rating : Three and a Half Star out of Five ; A Nice blend of Humour and Realism .