You can listen to the soundtrack here.
Despite the presence of Akon Chammak Challo fails to inspire much excitement, due to a monotonous arrangement. Till the last 1:30 minutes happen that is. That is where Hamsika Iyer joins in with a Tamil twist in the tale. And goes on to outshine Akon with her cameo. The song impresses just as much in its other four (!) versions as well. The second song from Akon, Criminal, is imagined well by the composers though, letting the singer go his natural way while fusing the Indian elements into it quite nicely. Vishal’s Ishq Asar Kare refrain I quite liked. Shruti Pathak excels in the guest role, though I would have preferred her voice unprocessed. Dildaara sees Vishal-Shekhar use Ben E King’s Stand By Me (thanks much to @atulmathew for this piece of info) as a base to create a breezy classical-based piece sung by Shafqat Amanat Ali. Bhare Naina ups the ante much higher, V-S seamlessly switching from classical to rock to ambient to create a super track. Icing on the cake is the spotless rendition by Nandini Srikar. Siddharth Coutto’s Right By Your Side is a throwback to the duo’s youth movie soundtracks, but makes for a pleasant listen nevertheless.
If there is one thing Vishal-Shekhar have been consistent at right from day 1, it is in their tributes to RD Burman. Raftarein is another mindblowing testimony to that fact, where the composers smartly incorporate the hook from Piya Tu and the famous shout from Duniya Mein in a sinister, very Pancham-esque track. Vishal and Shekhar even mimic the composer on the vocal front to good effect. Jiya Mora has some splendid classical rendition by Sukhwinder Singh, but a cacophonous electronic hotchpotch of an arrangement kills it. Finally there are three instrumental tracks. Comes The Light has a reinvention of the Pancham template on an orchestral scale, and the effect is fab. Even more heroic in sound is I’m On which again borrows the Piya Tu loop for a brief while. The grandest of all though is the last one, Song of the End, a fabulously crafted melancholic piece that should make for a wonderful viewing in theatre.
Vishal Shekhar make up for Rascals and how! A definite winner, Ra.One’s soundtrack.
Music Aloud Rating — 8/10
Top Recos — Bhare Naina, Dildaara, Raftarein, Song of the End
‘song of the end’ seems to be seriously inspired by the Danny Elfman’s batman TAS theme song