Shankar Ehsaan Loy are no strangers to boisterous dance tracks and they have done a lot of those in the past (thanks mainly to Karan Johar). In Dil Dhadakne Do they get to do three songs of that kind. Barring the blip that is Farhan Akhtar’s singing, the title song is fun and engaging riding on some fab guitars and brass sections. Priyanka Chopra does a pretty good job at her end of the vocals, and it also helps that the song came out with a well-shot video.
Gallan Goodiyaan isn’t as effective and comes with a strong heard-before feel (especially when the Punjabi bit kicks in). Some good singing though, especially from Sukhwinder Singh and Shankar Mahadevan (Yashita Sharma, Manish Tipu, Farhan Akhtar are the other singers). The third dance track is the one that impresses the most among the three, with its electro-swing base that the composers pull off brilliantly (to pick up a current reference point fresh in my head, it made my mind go back to Alley Cat by Madboy/Mink).
The choice of Sunidhi Chauhan as vocalist for Girls Like To Swing works very well and she produces an exuberant rendition, as do her backing singers (T Series hasn’t credited them, sadly).
The pathos bit that kicks off Phir Bhi Yeh Zindagi invokes a sense of deja vu, but is delivered soulfully by Divya Kumar, before the song takes on a sleeker, pensive tone and a new set of singers (Alyssa Mendonsa, Vishal Dadlani, Sapna Pathak, Farhan Akhtar). Nice, laidback listen this one. The soundtrack’s best goes to the younger generation singers – Siddharth Mahadevan and Sukriti Kakar, both of whom sound fabulous in Pehli Baar. The arrangement too is breezy, composers building on a trippy rock base like they always have.
Excel Entertainment-Shankar Ehsaan Loy combination has seen better days, but nonetheless Dil Dhadakne Do is an entertaining soundtrack from the composer trio.
(Vipin Nair blogs at www.musicaloud.com)