Kabali (Hindi) Music Review

Anup Pandey

Music: Santosh Narayan

Lyrics: Raqeeb Alam

Kabali is Santosh Narayan’s first for a Rajnikanth film and second in Hindi (after Saala Khadoos early this year) and he does deliver a soundtrack matching the grand stature of Rajnikanth.

1.Jag Hai Ye Dabang

There’s a solid base of drums and percussions on which this song is constructed. It is spiced up with neat electronic sounds and rap portions (by Roshan Jamrock). But what adds the real swag in this one is the Ennio Moricone-ish whistle tune. Shankar Mahadevan adds the punch from behind the microphone.

2. Jadoo Rawan Rawan

Pradeep Kumar in his baritone renders this classically derived tune, and is matched with sachharine Shreya Ghoshal. The arrangement is mostly a neat jugalbandi of strings (magical acoustic guitars by Keba Jeremiah) and tabla.

3. Aag Hun Main

The insanely ragey Neruppu Da is here. But Suraj Jagan is only half effective as Arunraj Kamaraj of the original. The stylish whistle from Jag Hai Ye Dabang continues here and is matched with Jhanu Chantar’s heavy electric guitars and ear-deafening sirens. ‘Kickass’ word was coined for this song. Here’s how you use electronic sounds… to roar. 

4. Taare Saare Chhup Gae

Pradeep Kumar gets another song of the soundtrack, this time more melancholic one. Narayan creates haunting atmosphere here with those chorus, bass and violins. 

5. Veeron Ki Bheed Men

Starts with acapella-ish vocals and rock-like drums and guitars, and the song then keeps alternating between that and heady rap (by Roshan Jamrock again) into which Narayan brilliantly infuses a trumpet.Frequently punctuated by gunshot sounds,Francois Castellino’s grungy voice renders the song in unimaginable way.

Made only for the dubbed version of the film, it is just a re-recorded album rather than a re-composed one; the bad mixing shows. Also, the lyrics, simply written, don’t fit in because the actual music is composed for Tamil lyrics which have its own colloquial flow inherent to the tune. Which is why, for listening purpose, I would prefer the Tamil version any day over the Hindi one. 

Ratings: 3.5/5