Songs and musician credits at the end.
Back in 2012, in Anurag Basu’s Barfi!, composer Pritam and lyricist Sayeed Quadri together created the lovely Phir Le Aaya Dil. In Ludo, the two join hands again for another beauty titled Hardum Humdum. While melodically this one belongs in the same semi-classical zone as Phir Le Aaya, the arrangement is a more upbeat mix of electronic and classical elements – Roopak Naigaonkar’s sarod and Feroz Shah’s harmonium being particularly worth mentioning. Quadri’s writing is immaculate, as is its delivery by Arijit Singh who incidentally sang my favourite version of the Barfi! song as well. Aside of the main version, Arijit also sings the longer film version of the song which, true to its title, is a lot more filmi with the classical elements all making way for guitars and synth. While I prefer the original version over this one for this very reason, I do appreciate the appearance of a bass line here. My favourite variant of Hardum Humdum, however, is the third (female) version – the arrangement is more aligned to the original, but with the harmonium standing in for the sarod and sitar well, and Shilpa Rao’s dreamy voice alongside her classical prowess works wonders for the tune! Aabaad Barbaad belongs to the line of breezy melodies that Pritam soundtracks used to regularly feature at one point, to the extent that I had stopped being a fan of those. Listening to one after a long time, however, feels like a pleasant throwback – absence does make the heart grow fonder! The melody is very hummable, Arijit Singh’s delivery effective and the arrangement carrying some lovely little touches, especially Ghulam Ali’s sarangi phrases.
Based on their past few (ok two) works together, there is a level of whimsy and quirkiness that I have begun to associate Anurag Basu-Pritam soundtracks with. While Ludo’s soundtrack doesn’t quite check those boxes, the remaining two songs are the closest it gets to that. Meri Tum Ho has a cheery melody that the composer adorns with a refreshing backdrop that has I D Rao piping up with this assortment of woodwinds and a wonderfully employed chorus. The unplugged version isn’t as fun, but the tune and chorus make it a pleasant listen nevertheless. Jubin Nautiyal and Ash King handle the singing in both versions, and do a commendable job. The album’s best song is where the composer goes folk – Dil Julaha is an absolute delight to listen to! There’s the very jolly, folksy tune that is bolstered by a bevy of exotic-sounding instruments, all from the North East, and a spotless rendition by Darshan Raval. Add to this Swanand Kirkire’s lines (the album features four lyricists for its four original songs) where he constructs some brilliant weaving analogies for love.
While it is a bummer that Ludo’s soundtrack has just four original songs (doesn’t help that the BGM tracks haven’t been released either), Pritam does still manage to produce a top-drawer set for Anurag Basu!
Music Aloud Rating: 3.5/5
Musician Credits
Thanks to Anurag Sharma and Chiranjeev Gorur for helping with this
Harpal Humdum
Music – Pritam
Singer – Arijit Singh
Lyrics – Sayeed Quadri
Music Production & Sound Design – DJ Phukan & Sunny M.R.
Music Production and Arrangement – Aditya N.
Additional Music Production and Arrangement – DJ Phukan & Sunny M.R.
Mix & Master – Shadab Rayeen at New Edge
Chief Sound Engineer & Shootmix – Ashwin Kulkarni
Music Production Manager – Anurag Sharma
Vocal Conductor – Akashdeep Sengupta
Sound Engineers – Aniruddh Anantha, Harjot Kaur & Himanshu Shirlekar
Sound Engineer at JAM8 Studio – Aaroh Velankar
Vocal Recording Engineer at Arijit’s Studio – Sukanto Singha
Mixing Assistant to Shadab – Abhishek Sortey & Tapas Sahoo
Live Dubs Conducted by DJ Phukan & Shubham Shirule
MUSICIANS (Dubbed at JAM8 Studio)
Acoustic and Electric Guitar – Roland Fernandes
Harmonium – Feroz Shah
Sarod – Roopak Naigaonkar
Sitar – Salman Khan
Aabaad Barbaad
Music – Pritam
Singer – Arijit Singh
Lyrics – Sandeep Srivastava
Sound Design – DJ Phukan & Sunny M.R.
Music Production and Arrangement – Sourav Roy
Additional Music Production and Arrangement – DJ Phukan
Drop Produced by DJ Phukan
Mix & Master – Shadab Rayeen at New Edge
Chief Sound Engineer & Shootmix – Ashwin Kulkarni
Music Production Manager – Anurag Sharma
Vocal Conductor – Akashdeep Sengupta
Vocal Drop Singer – Shreya Phukan
Chorus Design & Dub – Sourav Roy
Sound Engineers – Aniruddh Anantha & Harjot Kaur
Sound Engineer at JAM8 Studio – Aaroh Velankar
Vocal Recording Engineer at Arijit’s Studio – Sukanto Singha
Mixing Assistant to Shadab – Abhishek Sortey & Tapas Sahoo
Live Dubs Conducted by Shubham Shirule
MUSICIANS (Dubbed at JAM8 Studio)
Viola & Clarinet – Shirish Malhotra
Sarangi – Ghulam Ali
Meri Tum Ho
Music – Pritam
Singers – Jubin Nautiyal & Ash King
Lyrics – Sandeep Shrivastava & Shloke Lal
Music Production, Programming and Arrangement – Sunny M.R. & ZIA
Music Production & Sound Design – DJ Phukan & Sunny M.R.
Mix & Master – Shadab Rayeen at New Edge
Chief Sound Engineer & Shootmix – Ashwin Kulkarni
Music Production Manager – Anurag Sharma
Vocal Conductor – Akashdeep Sengupta
Vocal Design – Sunny M.R. & ZIA
Backing Vocals – ZIA, Sunny M.R., Geet Sagar, Akashdeep Sengupta & Anurag Sharma
Sound Engineers – Ashwin Kulkarni, Aniruddh Anantha & Harjot Kaur
Sound Engineer at JAM8 Studio – Aaroh Velankar & Abhijeet Shesh
Mixing Assistant to Shadab – Abhishek Sortey & Tapas Sahoo
MUSICIANS (Dubbed at JAM8 Studio)
Acoustic and Electric Guitars – Roland Fernandes
Bass Guitar – Roland Fernandes and ZIA
Clarinet, Recorder, Melodica & Flute – ID Rao
Dil Julaha
Music – Pritam
Singer – Darshan Raval
Lyrics – Swanand Kirkire
Music Production and Arrangement – Kalyan Baruah
Additional Music Production and Arrangement – DJ Phukan
Music Production & Sound Design – DJ Phukan & Sunny M.R.
Mix & Master – Shadab Rayeen at New Edge
Chief Sound Engineer & Shootmix – Ashwin Kulkarni
Music Production Manager – Anurag Sharma
Vocal Conductor – Akashdeep Sengupta
Backing Vocals – Tushar Joshi, Akashdeep Sengupta, Aniruddh Anantha and Anurag Sharma
Sound Engineers – Ashwin Kulkarni, Aniruddh Anantha & Harjot Kaur
Sound Engineer at JAM8 Studio – Aaroh Velankar, Akash Mukherjee & Subhashree Das
Mixing Assistant to Shadab – Abhishek Sortey & Tapas Sahoo
MUSICIANS (Dubbed at Auditek, Assam)
Flute – Parameswar Basumatari
Dhol – Lachit Baruah & Debeswar Borah
Taal & Toka – Jayanta Sonowal
Pepa & Gogona – Jayanta Sonowal
