Jab Harry Met Sejal is the soundtrack to the 2017 film of the same name directed by Imtiaz Ali and stars Anushka Sharma and Shah Rukh Khan. The film's music is composed by Pritam and lyrics were written by Irshad Kamil. The soundtrack accompanied 13 songs which was released by Sony Music India on 3 August 2017.
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Background and release
Jab Harry Met Sejal is Pritam's third collaboration with Ali after Jab We Met (2007) and Love Aaj Kal (2009). The music rights for the film were acquired by Sony Music India for ₹15 crore (US$1.6 million).
The first song from the soundtrack "Radha" was released as a single on 21 June 2017, coincided with World Music Day; the track was performed by Shahid Mallya and Sunidhi Chauhan. Upon its release, the track crossed 6 million views within less than 24 hours of its release. Owing to its success, the song was released in multiple languages for promotional purposes in Tamil ("Vandhaale Radha"), Telugu ("Nene Nee Radha"), Bengali ("Ami Holam Tomar Radha") and Arabic ("Ami Holam Tomar Radha"). The Tamil and Telugu versions were sung by Shashaa Tirupati, while the Bengali and Arabic versions were respectively sung by Pragya Dasgupta and Shaimaa ElShayeb. The second song "Beech Beech Main" is a party number, featuring Khan and Sharma. Sung by Arijit Singh, Shalmali Kholgade and Shefali Alvares, the song was released on 1 July 2017.
The third song "Safar" performed by Singh was released on 10 July 2017. The music video was preceded with an interaction between Kamil, Khan and Pritam regarding the song's curation and composition, which Scroll.in described it as an innovative way to promote the film. The fourth song "Butterfly", sung by Dev Negi, Chauhan, Aman Trikha and Nooran Sisters was released on 19 July 2017. The film version of the song was mixed with a tumbi track, that was absent in the final mastering which was sent to the music platforms. The fourth song "Hawayein" performed by Singh was released on 26 July 2017. It became the most streamed song with its music video being viewed 9.8 million times within 24 hours on YouTube. Pritam said that he did not expect the song to be a huge success, while Sanujeet Bhujabal, marketing director at Sony Music India described it as a "never-heard-before phenomenon".
On 23 July 2017, Khan announced on Twitter that American DJ Diplo had composed a song "Phurrr" with Pritam. A mix of bhangra and electronic music, the song was sung by Diplo, Mohit Chauhan and Tushar Joshi and was released on 3 August. The film version was solely composed by Pritam, without Diplo's involvement, which was included in the soundtrack. The 13-track album was released on 30 July 2017.
Post the film's release, on 8 August 2017, Pritam announced that he would take a one-year sabbatical, without signing new projects until the release of Kalank (2019).
Reception
Manish Gaekwad of Film Companion wrote "The album piles on with so many tracks [...] and sometimes that is precisely why one cannot take it anymore." Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama rated 4 out of 5 saying "The music of Jab Harry Met Sejal is already popular and it is all set to enjoy a good run in weeks and months to come as well." Vipin Nair of Music Aloud wrote "Composing for Imtiaz Ali after a gap of eight years, Pritam returns with a vengeance, giving him the team’s biggest and best soundtrack yet in Jab Harry Met Sejal." Debarati S Sen of The Times of India commented that they have made an "enjoyable album", "which captures the usual genres that characterises a typical Bollywood film, well enough". Pradeep Menon of Firstpost called "Safar" as "one of Pritam’s most captivating songs yet". Milliblog wrote "Close on the heels of the magnificent Jagga Jasoos, Pritam ups the ante in Jab Harry Met Sejal, in what seems to be his best year yet!" Suanshu Khurana of The Indian Express called it as "a mix of brilliant and some completely ordinary tracks". Shantanu David of News18 stated that the album has "both hits and misses".