Music review – Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal

Tadka question – with Chak De India! firmly imprinted in Indian minds forever, the expectations were high from the music of Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal; did the musical team live up to those expectations? Click on ‘Read more’ to read the complete music preview.

When you have music director as Pritam and lyricist Javed Akhtar, you are certain that the music of Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal is something to watch out for. And rightly so, it manages to score some goals itself.

The whole feel to the album is fast paced, and fresh with suitably done lyrics for each situation, and almost all of the songs are neatly done, without going overboard with the treatment. Anand Raj Anand and Richa Sharma rev it up in ‘Billo Rani‘ which has this whole ‘made for bollywood’ aura hovering above it. The lyrics playfully move along and the interludes are finely etched in the song. This party track almost takes you to the 90s when hindi songs were done with the ‘qawwali’ touch. Neeraj Shridhar sings so well in ‘Ishq ka kalma‘ that you would like to listen to this song again and again. It is definitely that one song which will not just make it to the dance floors, but also way ahead in the chartbusters. You don’t care about the lyrics which have a dated feel to them, but the whole music treatment is fresh enough to make up for it. The movie has been shot in UK entirely, and this song, seems like, was done keeping that in mind what with the english lyrics beautifully put in for some ‘cool’ factor.

Devrat sings with all the josh in the solo ‘Hey Dude‘ which is peppy and a ‘don’t mess with me’ attitude spread all over the track length, quite literally. The song’s lyrics are based on the fighting spirit of the characters. But then you have Daler Mehndi takes the whole spirit thingy a notch higher and is a faster one, ‘Halla Bol/ Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal‘. This time again the lyrics are done aptly, with the music having various sounds (like that of a bagpiper, violin etc), and the team spirit comes up truly in this song. If Chak De India! became the national victory song, wrongly but strongly associated with then this one might just become the one for football and hockey, what with John Abraham who has become the ambassador for the Indian football team, quite as a publicity stunt for the movie.

Javed Ali sings the last song of the album Tara Ru‘, which almost makes one feel as if it was done either for the closing credits or some ‘twist in the story’ event. Overall the album is a nice one, but what truly stands out in this one is how the chorus has been used to improve a song’s whole feel. Pritam has done his work quite well because when you have a movie with ‘sports’ and ‘team effort’ at it’s centre, then it becomes a challenge to involve the sounds for the rest of the team, besides the lead starcast. And now what remains to be seen is how queen of Bollywood’s dance numbers, ace choreographer Saroj Khan has made the stars dance to her tunes. All in all, an enjoyable album!