Director Sujoy Ghosh’s new offering ‘Badla’, featuring Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu in principle roles, is an official adaptation of the Spanish thriller ‘Contratiempo’. Though the film’s premise does not leave much scope for music, the album has four tracks, including an unplugged version of one of the songs. One still has decent expectations from the music for two reasons – one, most of Sujoy Ghosh’s films have had good music and two, the album has names like Amaal Mallik, Clinton Cerejo and Anupam Roy associated with it.
The album opens with the much publicised “Kyun Rabba”, composed by Amaal Mallik and sung by Armaan Malik. Replete with the sound of drums, tabla and dholak, this is the most filmy song on the album which is not a bad thing as it makes an impression with the very first listening. The track does not really break any new ground but is engaging. Kumaar is in familiar terrain here as his lyrics are a mix of Hindi and Punjabi words. The unplugged version has a more mellow sound to it and tablas and dholaks are not included in this version.
Unlike “Kyun Rabba”, the Clinton Cerejo composed “Aukaat” takes an unfamiliar route and surprises you with its unpredictability. It starts off with sombre piano notes and then, after a while, Amitabh Bachchan enters the scene and renders a rap portion. While Bachchan being credited with Jizzy for rendering the rap portion might get a lot of people to listen to this song, due credit must be given to Clinton Cerejo for layering the tracks with several different elements which does not make it sound like a random rap song.
“Tum Na Aaye”, Amaal’s second track on the album, is perhaps the most appealing song on the soundtrack. The hook line, in particular, gets in your head instantly and makes you go for the repeat button. It is also wonderful to hear KK’s voice on a track; here is one singer who definitely needs to be heard more often. The beautifully pensive lyrics have been penned by A.M Turaz, who is one of the most underrated lyric writers around.
Just like Clinton, Anupam Roy goes in for a fair bit of experimental sound with “Badla”, the title track. The word ‘badla’ is used multiple times in different context throughout the song. While at times, the wordplay does register an impact, there are times when it falls flat. Anupam Roy’s tune and flamboyant singing is quite nice though. The track does take a while to grow on you but
Amaal Malik, Clinton Cerejo and Anupam bring their own sense and sensibilities but the one thing that remains consistent throughout the album is a feeling of angst. ‘Badla’ is a good, consistently engaging album that works well within the context of the theme of the film.