Film: Jab Tak Hai Jaan
Music: AR Rahman
Lyrics: Various artistes
Rating: **

The soundtrack of Jab Tak Hai Jaan begins with Challa, a song that has elicited a wide range of reactions ever since its video released on YouTube two weeks ago. Keeping aside the jarring visuals of Shah Rukh Khan clumsily strumming the guitar, the song — a simplistic acoustic rock track — doesn’t disappoint. It may not come across as a typical, grand AR Rahman production, but singer Rabbi nails it with his distinctive vocals.

Saans doesn’t belong to this era at all. Save for the grand orchestral instrumentation, the tardy love ballad, which still seems to be stuck in the ’90s, doesn’t hold its own. Shreya Ghoshal’s extreme lilts on ‘saans mein teri..saaaaaans mili toh’ and the obsolete dafli might get under the skin of even the most patient listeners.

Thankfully, Saans (reprise) doesn’t torture as much; the two-minute number features minimal instrumentation (the dafli remains though). Ishq Shava, sung by Canadian pop singer Raghav with Shilpa Rao, has fine percussions, Middle-Eastern style. Singer Harshdeep Kaur’s voice befits Heer, a melancholic Punjabi ballad. Rahman experiments beautifully in Jiya Re, a song where singer Neeti Mohan makes her debut. The chorus cascades to a crescendo-like build-up, making the song one of the most memorable ones in the album.

The title track Jab Tak Hai Jaan could have been more hummable. Sung by Javed Ali and Shakthisree Gopalan, it alternates between a dreamy verse and an upbeat chorus. Those with a thing for percussions will enjoy Ishq dance a catchy instrumental track. The soundtrack concludes with a sparse track featuring SRK reciting Jab Tak Hai Jaan, the poem.



What we like
Jiya Re, Ishq dance

What we don’t like
Anachronistic feel