Wake up Sid

When a movie is from Karan Johar's Dharma productions, you expect something phenomenal from the album. And why not, we've always had it that way, even in last year's Dostana. Even before that it was exactly that way, in all the 6 films since 1998, all starring SRK.
The music directors here are naturally Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, as their partnership with Karan scaled new heights in KHNH and KANK. However, since KANK happened, SEL have kind of been experimenting and haven't given anything that exceptional. So this album is all the more important for them.
Meanwhile, Ranbir Kapoor needs this film to do well in order to move on, after a colossal disaster called Saawariya and an average Bachna Ae Haseeno.
The album also has one track composed by Amit Trivedi, last seen in the super innovative Dev D.

1. Wake up Sid : This title track falls in the typical SEL genre that the versatile music director trio has pioneered over the years. The main line "Wake up sid" is brilliant, but the rest of the song is rather slow and almost betrays the very purpose of the song. The song asks Sid to wake up from the kind of life he's living and start exploring the world by himself. Again, towards the end of the song there's a completely unnecessary change of scale which adds no value to the song. Look's like it's become some kind of a fashion statement for music directors to change the scale at the end of the song. But overall, good.

2. Kya karoon : The song has a jaane kyunish feeling(as far as the background music is concerned) all along and is sung by Clinton Cerejo. I have a feeling this is the same Clinton who sung Oh! shanti shanti in VA. Anyway, this song is about Sid analyzing his life and trying to figure out how to move on from his lazy lifestyle. The song is okay, and should help in moving the film forward.

3. Aaj kal zindagi : Sid seems to have finally found out what to do with his life. He's wide awake now. Aaj kal zindagi tells us about his new found state of self-realization. Shankar Mahadevan effortelessly sings this inspirational number. The background music though is surprisingly similar to that of saawariya saawariya(Swades), especially the beginning parts.

4. Iktara : Amit Trivedi, the composer of the unconventional yet exceptional Emosanal Attyachar guest composes this song, sung by Sufi singer Kavita Seth. And what a composition this turns out to be! Nobody would have thought that the guy who gave us a song like Emosanal Attyachar would give us something drastically opposite(yet superb) in Iktara. The message in Iktara is very clear : Amit Trivedi is here to stay!

5. Life is crazy : One minute into this song and you know you're back in SEL territory. Because, at this point you realize there's not much variety used by the trio in this album. I mean at the beginning, all their 4 songs roughly sound similar.There's nothing great about this song and it's more or less in the same genre as the first 3 songs. However, I guess it'll fit well in the narrative.


The album is not bad as such, but is easily overshadowed when you compare it with other movies from Dharma productions. But such a comparison is irrelevant here as the story and scenario are completely different from typical Karan Johar tearjerkers. The album should do well with college going crowds.