‘Khuda Haafiz’ had a rather underwhelming soundtrack by Mithoon. While one or two songs left a mark, the album didn’t make much of an impression. In ‘Khuda Haafiz Chapter II – Agni Pariksha’, Mithoon has been credited with just one song. Vishal Mishra has composed two songs and one song has been scored by Shabbir Ahmed and Ayaz Kohli. The lyrics have been written by Mithoon, Manoj Muntashir, Shabbir Ahmed, Vishal Mishra, Kaushal Kishore and Faruk Kabir.
“Chaiyaan Main Saiyaan Ki”, the opening track on the album, brings back memories of “Maula Mere Maula” and “Javeda Zindagi”, the two songs Mithoon had composed for ‘Anwar’ (2007). The song sounds very pleasant and Mithoon’s choice of vocalists is very interesting as well. Two male vocalists have been credited to the song. While newcomer Keshav Anand sings most of the lines written for the male vocalist, Jubin Nautiyal is brought in to render the hook line. The combination works very well and as the female vocalist, Asees Kaur, too, gives a good account of herself.
Next arrives “Rubaru”, the best track on the album. Composed by Vishal Mishra and written by Manoj Muntashir, the song has a devotional touch to it. It has, in parts, been designed as a qawalli. The qawalli portion has been sung by Niazi Nizami Brothers (Imran and Hasan). The song starts off with a beautiful piano and then, slowly one hears several other instruments like flute and tabla. “Main hoon faqeer tera rakhh meri aabru, haami yeh beqasa hai itni aarzoo….”, Manoj Muntashir writes the kind of lines that you shall remember long after you have finished listening to the song. While Vishal composes a beautiful tune, his soulful rendition, too, plays an important role in making this a memorable song.
In the recent past, lyricist Shabbir Ahmed has brought his composing abilities to the fore in albums like ‘Romeo Akbar Walter’ and ‘Bhavai’. In “Junoon Hai”, he has been credited as the lyricist and co-composer along with Ayaz Kohli. The song can be best described as a Muslim devotional song that works largely due to the sparkling lyrics written by Shabbir and the powerful rendition by Saaj Bhatt, Brijesh Shandilya and Anis Ali Sabri. The tune doesn’t really hold up and therefore, this is the kind of song that one can expect to work better with visuals. Given the nature of the song, it should arrive at an important point in the film.
“Aaja Ve”, the last song on the album, is composed by Vishal Mishra and reminds one of several songs composed by Nadeem – Shravan in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. The song is steeped in melancholy and Vishal manages to bring the pathos in the song to the fore effectively with his confident rendition. The tune has a heard-before feel to it but is still quite engaging. The track has been arranged well by Gaurav Vaswani. A bunch of instruments including flute, table, guitar, violins and cello, among others, have been recorded live for the song.
The music of In ‘Khuda Haafiz Chapter 2 – Agni Pariksha’ turns out to be better than the first film in the franchise. Out of the four tracks, three work very well as audio tracks and should do well regardless of the fate of the film.