Short Kut – The Con is On is the upcoming Hindi remake of Malayalam blockbuster movie Udayanaanu Thaaram. The movie stars Akshaye Khanna, Arshad Warsi and Amritha Rao. The music has been done by Shankar Ehsaan Loy and the lyrics are by Javed Akhtar. Surely one of the best combos you get when it comes to Bollywood music (after anything involving ARR that is!!). And considering the good run that SEL have had so far this year, expectations have been high of Shortkut.
The title song Patli Gali sung by Shankar Mahadevan is a standard SEL product, reminiscent of their Move Your Body (Johnny Gaddaar) and Jhoom (JBJ), only a tad slower. Not surprisingly, the resemblance is accentuated in the faster remix version! Ditto goes for Javed Ali-Shreya Ghoshal-rendered Kyun Hota Hai Dil Deewana which heavily reminds one of Kajra Re and the other SEL songs of that genre, though not of the same class. The third song Mareeze Mohabbat is sung by Nikita Nigam (Sonu’s sister), Kirti Sagathia (wonder if related to Karsan Sagathia), Hrishikesh Kamerkar and Shankar Mahadevan. The rapper is Ravi “Rags” Khote I believe, going by the resemblance with the voice in the Tamil song Oru Koodai from Sivaji done by Rahman. Though again slightly akin to some older SEL songs, in this one the repetitiveness is less palpable. The young singers have done a brilliant job. In the remix version however an overload of electronic music spoils the whole song. Its in Kal Nau Baje, however, that Shankar Ehsaan Loy are really in their elements with a well crafted melody with slight classical overtones. The singing has been done by Sonu Nigam and Alka Yagnik. Its been quite long since Sonu Nigam or Alka sang for SEL I guess. Nice song to make a return in any case.
With any other music director Shortkut might have qualified as a good album. But considering that this happens to be a work by Shankar Ehsaan Loy and I happen to be a diehard SEL fan, slightly disappointing is my verdict of Shortkut‘s music.
Kal Nau Baje is the best.