Dhadak will hit screens on July 20.
That Hindi film music is witnessing a steep downfall is no news to anyone who has spent years listening to the likes of Rafi and Kishore sing to the tunes of Kalyanji-Anandji and Lakshikant-Pyarelal. Even decades after these legends stopped recording, Hindi film music continued to flourish in the company of many great music directors and singers but for the past few years, there has been a massive change in the music scene. We seldom hear tracks that we continue to hum for days or even play on repeat for weeks but with Ajay-Atul’s music in Dhadak, we are witnessing a welcome break from that tiring trend.
Ajay-Atul’s music in the Marathi counterpart Sairat was loved by all. That album was truly an example of how good music surpasses all borders. With the Hindi adaptation too, Ajay-Atul have recreated some of their own tracks for a wider audience as this time the lyrics would be in Hindi. So far, two songs from the Hindi album have been released, Zingaat and Dhadak, and it would be safe to say that the music of this film is reminding us of the good old days when Hindi film music was so good that we would fall in love with the album and in this age, this is a rarity.
Many of the popular tracks these days are either a recreation of hit 90s songs or an updated version of a popular Punjabi track. Originality seems to be a thing of the past and the only sufferers here are the listeners. Remembering the last good Hindi film track will take you a while and we can’t really say who is to blame here. In a recent interview with Anupama Chopra, T-Series head Bhushan Kumar shared that a recreation done well gets quite popular amongst the younger audience. He even shared data explaining how well the recreated tracks work. The pre-millennial generation was conditioned to a great Hindi film music culture but such is not the case anymore, at least for the ones who can still name their favourite Udit Narayan tracks.
Sairat’s music was recorded with live musicians and thus, it had the grand feel attached to it. With Dhadak, we hope that the Hindi film music scene gets its much-needed revival. And even though we hope that things will witness a shift, we all know that much like the remix era that plagued us in the early 2000s, this era of revamped songs will vanish only after it has ruined a good number of songs.
But for now, the likes of Dhadak continue to reinstate our faith in Bollywood music and that is a hope that Hindi music lovers really need.