Vishesh Films and Emraan Hashmi are two established names in the film industry. Now add to that, the two “Most Wanted” artists of the music industry at present, Ankit Tiwari and Arijit Singh. One expects some melodious high quality numbers from the soundtrack of ‘Mr. X’ which boasts of five original songs and one reprise version.
“Tu Jo Hai”, which is composed and sung by Ankit Tiwari, sits comfortably somewhere between Ankit’s very own “Dil Darbadar” from ‘PK’ and “Tu Hai Ki Nai” from ‘Roy’. As usual it starts off on an unplugged note with Ankit’s auto-tuned vocals and one curiously wonders why such a powerful voice with such a great scale – consider the alaaps portions of “Sun Raha Hai Na Tu” from ‘Aashiqui 2’, needs to be auto-tuned! Both the interludes have some nice guitar riffs and surprisingly the sad-romantic lyrics by Mohnish Raza comes as the high point of this number which otherwise offers nothing much new on the musical front. Neverthless it’s going to be a ‘hit’ and is here to stay at the top of music charts for some weeks to come.
Jeet Ganguly comes up with the title song “Mr.X”, which is a situational theme number that defines the character of Emraan Hashmi. It has a certain anxious zing attached to it, where Mili Nair is splendid with her high pitched renditions and hang on…we also have Mr. Mahesh Bhatt making his singing debut for the hook line which irritates at first few listens but settles down eventually. Lyrics by Rashmi Singh are pretty average. Overall, it comes as a functional number that should work well alongside the narration.
Ankit Tiwari returns back with “Saad Shukrana” which is another melodious number that starts off in his typical template style from where he left the first song “Tu Jo Hai”. Surprisingly, it suddenly shifts gear after one minute as one hear slow rock strums in the first interlude which leads up to two beautiful paragraphs written by Manoj Shukla. No doubt, this one is a clear winner although the its overall feel still lands in the same comfort zone of the musician.
“Alif Se” is a fast pulsating techno number composed by Ankit Tiwari and written by Abhendra Kumar Upadhyay. The track may surprise many listeners who associates only sad/romantic numbers with the composer’s name and especially those who haven’t heard “Tequila Wakila” from ‘Samraat & Co.’, which proved that he is able to get outside his comfort zone. The interludes here, especially from 1:12 to 1:30, somehow does a “Kamli” from ‘Dhoom 3’ and are quite similar with the arrangements used in that song.
Coming to the vocals, one can again hear the auto-tuned effect being used for both Neeti Mohan and Ankit Tiwari but somehow it does justice to the song and synchronises well due to its techno feel. It is probably time he stops auto-tuning his lazy styled vocals in romantic numbers that limits the creativity of his voice. Overall, the composition sounds fresh and breaks the shackles for Ankit Tiwari, though the fate of the song now depends upon how it will be picturised and used in the movie.
The best of the lot is “Teri Khushboo” by Jeet Ganguly which ends the soundtrack on an eccentric note. One gets a sense of déjà vu at the very onset (prelude) with the guitar and piano arrangements being fairly similar to “Tu Hi Haqeeqat” from ‘Tum Mile’ until Arijit Singh joins in and transports the listeners into an aura of his own beautifully interwoven around some agonising lyrics that makes one feel the pain. Jeet Ganguly uses minimum arrangements and the focus is mostly on the lyrics and the renditions. This one is a pre-climax material and defines a crucial emotional moment in the movie. Like all other previous compositions of Jeet Ganguly and Arijit Singh, this one is here to rule the charts but will take some time to grow. Gorgeous!
Palak Muchhal replaces Arijit for the female version of “Teri Khushboo” and her voice strikes a chord instantly. Her rendition usually reminds us of Shreya Ghoshal. It is really hard to differentiate between the vocals of these two hugely talented artists. The song here is almost the same as the previous one, although a little change in the lyrics would have provided variety and freshness, but it still makes up for a good version that emerges as a winner.
‘Mr.X’ is a usual Bhatt camp soundtrack with some melodious numbers, an energetic track and then a sad heart wrenching number and probably that is what one expected from the soundtrack of Vishesh Films. “Tu Jo Hai” despite being criticised, is hard to keep away and will become popular nevertheless whereas “Teri Khushboo” is undoubtedly the most prominent song of the soundtrack and will grow with time.
