Rowdy Rathore Review

Bollywood films do not always make a lot of sense. "Don’t angry me" is the tag line from Rowdy Rathore, which stars Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha. It must be one of the oddest tag lines for a film and character that I have heard. It’s grammatically incorrect and doesn’t quite make sense. Thankfully most of the music does.

The album consists of seven songs composed by Sajid-Wajid and unusually for a Bollywood soundtrack contains no remixes. I consider remixes to be filler tracks and hate it when there are more of two of them on a Bollywood album. Rowdy Rathore is a better album because of the lack of remixes.

With its nonsense lyrics I find the chorus of Chinta Ta Ta Chita Chita slightly annoying. It has a good beat to it, but I think another song would have made a better promo. Dhadhang Dhang has a similar feel and features Shreya Ghoshal singing alongside Wajid. Both song are energetic, full of different beats and have great vocals. 

Like all good masala films, Rowdy Rathore has an item number. Aa Re Pritam Pyare stars not one but three item women. It contains excellent vocals from Mamta Sharma and Sarosh Sami. It is catchy and has a folksy touch which is reflected in the small costumes the item girls wear. This song has more energy than a toddler eating jelly beans. Expect it to replace Sheela and Munni at parties. 

I’m a great fan of Shreya Ghoshal and there are three songs on the album that show off her voice wonderfully. Chandaniya focuses completely on Shreya. It is slow with lots of lush rich tones and has a light feel to it. Tere Ishq Bada Theekha is a lovely filmi duet with Shreya and Javed Ali. Their vocals blend well together and I can’t wait to see this one picturised on the actors.

The opening of Chammak Challo Chel Chabeli is very similar to Chel Chabeela from Saawariya. This song is Kumar Sanu’s return to Bollywood after six years. His vocals  vocals are brilliant, but they felt like an intrusion into a Shreya song. I would have preferred it if Kumar’s vocals were left out of the song, but I’m sure it will make more sense when it is seen in the film.

If Rowdy Mix was not on the soundtrack I am sure there would have been remixes on it instead. The track closes the album and is made up of spoken lines from Akshay Kumar against an electro/ house/ dubstep background. There are a few Arabic samples in there and I am sure it will pop up as an instrumental in the film.

Verdict: It is great to find a Bollywood soundtrack with no remixes or blatant plagiarism. It has a timeless feel which could appeal to a wide audience. Rowdy Rathore is one of the better film soundtracks released this year.