Worst. Review on Drona Songs

Despite having a star-studded cast, Drona’s music release has had a pretty quiet release without any anticipation or media hoopla surrounding it. Directed by Goldie Behland made under the banner of Rose Movies and Eros Entertainment, Drona dares to venture into the unconventional genre of fantasy and the supernatural with Abhishek Bachchan playing the superhero Drona who has been predicted to rise and end all evil. His evil villain: Riz Raizada played by the talented K K Menon(Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. and Life in a Metro). His love interest and sexy sidekick is Sonia, played by the beautiful Priyanka Chopra. Drona also stars Queen Bachchan, Jaya, and the film hits cinemas on 2 October 2008.

The difficult task of giving music for a film of such a genre is in the hands of Dhru Ghanekar(Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar) who is composing his first solo gig. Lyrics have been penned by debutante Vaibhav Modi. The album has seven songs, four of which have been sung by Sunidhi Chauhan. Other singers include, Roop Kumar Rathod, Sadhna Sargam, Shaan and the man himself, Dhruv Ghanekar.

Drona’s anthem titled Drona commences the album and succinctly gives the facts and figures about our superhero protagonist, Drona. A situational number that presses all the right commercial buttons, ’Drona’ has a fast paced and catchy beat. It is a modern track rendered well by Dhruv who sings with glorification and pride and masters the super-heroic feel of the song. Lyrically, the song is well written and deviates away from clichéd phrases of heroism. The song appears later on as a remixed version titled Drona Redux. This version really turns up the beat(and the heat) as Sundhi Chauhan steps behind the mic. It is much more enjoyable than the first, mainly because of Miss Chauhan’s wholehearted rendition that holds nothing back.

A more appropriate title for Oop Cha would have been Oomph because that one word effectively summarizes this track. To elaborate on that, ’Oop Cha’ is an energetic dance number with a fantastic start up consisting of chimes and other metallic sounds. The hip and cool atmosphere of the song makes up for the odd chanting of ‘oop oop cha oop oop’, and Sundhi’s brilliant vocals do not let the listener down. It is a song about seizing the moment, taking risks and living life to the max. Lyrics are great mixture of Hindi and English without them sounding forced or out of place. A remix of the track appears later on in the album which is equally good but could have easily done without the rap.

The album slows down with the melodic and classical Bandagi sung by Sundhi and Roop Kumar Rathod. It is hard to believe you were just listening to Sundhi singing ’Oop Cha’ as she effortlessly slips into classical mode with this track. Rathod, as always, is magnificent with his endearing vocals. It is a romantic fairytale number with a hymn-like quality to it which makes exceptional use of the tabla. Newcomer Vaibhav Modi writes brilliant and poetically rich lyrics for this track which are in same line as the works of Javed Akhtar and Gulzar.

Nanhe Nanhe is a haunting yet soothing lullaby sung beautifully by the outstanding Sadhna Sargam. Talents such as Lata Mangeshkar or Asha Bhosle could not have done it better. Vaibhav strikes gold with the lyrics once again and can definitely give the new favourite Prasoon Joshi a run for his money. Music moves in a peaceful manner with a subtle heartbreaking element to it.

The album returns to joyful and happy note with Khushi sung by Shaan. A jazzy conversational number, it instantly reminds you of ’Kaisi Pehli Zindagani’ from Parineeta. It is well written by Vaibhav and probably will be picturized in the pre-Drona phase of Abhishek’s character.

The album closes with the remixes of ’Oop Cha’ and the title number.

Drona is an all out situational album with the obvious exception of the dance number ’Oop Cha’. Its chances rest heavily on the songs’ placement, picturization and choreography in the film. Nevertheless, Dhruv Ghanekar makes an honest effort and the man does not lack talent. Vaibhav makes an impressionable debut as a lyricist. This is evident in ’Bandagi’ and ’Nanhe Nanhe’. Ultimately, Drona is a relatively unconventional soundtrack and may not appeal to the masses