Tiger Shroff has a great challenge ahead in Student Of The Year 2: get every one of his muscles to emote to the very fine Arijit Singh song Main Bhi Nahin Soya in the May 10 release.
Vishal-Shekhar’s tune lends itself well to an unplugged version. Anvita Dutt Guptan’s pensive lyrics are an odd fit for the film’s bubblegum universe, but Arijit Singh is, as always, top-notch. The song suggests that life has come crashing down for the hero, and it would be delightful to see Shroff try to dance his way out of this one.
Vishal-Shekhar’s soundtrack for Student Of The Year 2 is committed to the film’s vision of being a High School Musical-like fantasy. Four out of the six songs are club bangers with a mix of Hindi-Punjabi lyrics. Vishal-Shekhar successfully bring freshness to the format, which is a testament to their impeccable grasp over dance music over the years.
There have always been sombre gems hidden behind the dance hits: Jaaniya Ve (Dus, 2005), Aazmale Aazmale (Taxi No 9211, 2006), Bulleya (Sultan, 2016) and Tera Noor (Tiger Zinda Hai, 2017). In SOTY 2, the standouts are Arijit Singh’s Main Bhi Nahin Soya and Sanam Puri-Neeti Mohan’s Fakira.
Love can make an athlete an ascetic, Anvita Dutt Guptan writes in Fakira. The guitars and strings are splendid and the percussion never boring or intrusive. However, Sanam Puri and Neeti Mohan’s voices are strictly average.
Is the Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani remix any good? Vishal-Shekhar use Kishore Kumar’s original voice in not just the mukhda, but the antara (“Baatein, mulaakate karne...”) too. And there’s a smooth transition from Kumar’s vocals to Payal Dev’s voice in the antara, which also retains RD Burman’s tune but has a couple of new lines in sync with the song’s renewed purpose.
Mumbai Dilli Di Kudiyaan has an earworm of a riff. At three-and-a-half minutes, this is a tight club song with short verses, the right amount of production, and a killer hook. The lyrics (“Dil mein bhara hai aise disco, paani pyara ho jaise fish ko”) are by Vayu.
The Hook Up Song is another winner, which sounds like something the composers came up with after diligently absorbing the sound of the entire Speed Records catalogue. It is nice to hear Shekhar Ravjiani, who usually sings the not-fun and respectable songs, to break free here.
The hook’s lines (“Lele number mera, baad mein message mujhko kar dena / Khudko samajh ke lucky, mujhse hook up tu kar le na”) are too sharp to miss – they are by Kumaar. Vishal-Shekhar often go wacky with lyrics in the hook sections in many of their songs – the craziness of the entirety of Dil Dance Maare is yet to be surpassed – and this is one more example.
Speaking of lyrics, why do these songs suddenly slip into Punjabi from Hindi? That is the question of the year.