Happy New Year (soundtrack)

Vishal–Shekhar composed the soundtrack in their third collaboration with Farah Khan following Om Shanti Om (2007) and Tees Maar Khan (2010);^[1] John Stewart Eduri composed the background score.^[2] The duo worked on the film's music, having composed the tunes during early-2012 till 2013 and continued recording throughout 2014.^[1][3] Irshad Kamil, who they had collaborated with in Shabd, Karam (both 2005), Anjaana Anjaani (2010) and Rascals (2011), came on board as principal lyricist; Kumaar, a frequent collaborator of the duo, who had written the Punjabi portions of "Jag Soona Soona Lage" from Om Shanti Om, guest-wrote the songs "Lovely" and "Sharabi", which were respectively co-composed by British-Punjabi guest musician Dr Zeus and the guest Bhangra pop group RDB, while director Farah Khan stepped in to write the lyrics for "Nonsense Ki Night" with the duo themselves, who also contributed lyrics to "Sharabi".^[4] The music rights were purchased by T-Series for a price of ₹120 million (US$1.97 million).^[5][6] Abhijit Vaghani served as the album co-producer.^[7]

The soundtrack was preceded with the first song "India Waale" which released on 3 September 2014.^[8][9] The second song "Manwa Laage" was released on 10 September.^[10][11] The soundtrack was launched on 24 September at an event held in the outskirts of Film City, Mumbai with the cast and crew participating.^[12] The event is hosted by Rithvik Dhanjani and Kunwar Amar, with Vishal–Shekhar and his music team performed the songs live on stage.^[13] Besides the musical performance, a magic show was hosted by British-based digital illusionist-magician Keelan Leyser and the cast performing to the song "India Waale".^[14] The producers further tied up with Lenovo to showcase its range of Full HD laptop products at the music launch event.^[15] The event was aired live on the official YouTube channel of Red Chillies Entertainment.^[16]

Kasmin Fernandes at The Times of India felt, "As a heist film centred around a dance competition, Happy New Year provides plenty of fodder for composers Vishal and Shekhar and lyricist Irshad Kamil to showcase their way with sounds. And they've delivered, with seven original tracks, one electronic version, a variation, a medley and an instrumental number."^[17] Rohit Vats for Hindustan Times gave the album 3 out of 5 stars stated, "Farah Khan looks more concerned about the feel of her film than the quality of the songs, and it prompts her to go with trendy tunes. Overall, the album is average and is only youth oriented. Acquiring longevity will be difficult for this album."^[18]

Rajiv Vijayakar of Bollywood Hungama wrote "Three breezy songs dominate, while 'Lovely' may do well for every short span [...] On a qualitative front, the score is average after the abovementioned winning tracks."^[19] Joginder Tuteja of Rediff.com wrote "the Happy New Year soundtrack has quite a few winners".^[20] While calling it as a "mixed bag", Devesh Sharma of Filmfare wrote "The composers have stuck closely to director Farah Khan's vision and haven’t experimented much. Knowing Farah, the songs are going to be a visual treat. Can’t wait for SRK and company to wield their magic."^[21] Karthik Srinivasan of Milliblog wrote "Less Vishal-Shekhar, lot more Farah Khan, this soundtrack."^[22]