Gold: Hands Up Zindagi track from Prithviraj-starrer shows how music salvaged Alphonse Puthren’s latest

If the audience had to pick one sequence that showed the brilliance of filmmaker Alphonse Puthren in his latest directorial Gold, many would have arguable chosen the events that transpired when Prithviraj Sukumaran’s character Joshi discovers what’s inside the truck outside his home and scampers to cover his trace before the cops arrive.

The sequence, from the movie that also has Nayanthara, Vinay Forrt, Lalu Alex and Baburaj, was released online as the video of the track titled Hands Up Zindagi. The song, composed by Shankar Jaikishan, begins with the tune of Zindagi Ek Safar before shifting to a hilarious parody track, written by Nadirsha. Shabareesh Varma and Padmaja Sreenivasan have rendered the track with Aishwarya Raghavan, Gold’s music director Rajesh Murugesan and KS Abhishek chipping in with additional vocals.

The song plays when Joshi gets a call from the cops that they will be arriving at his house to take stock of the contents in the pick-up truck. The car mechanics, essayed by Saiju Kurup and Althaf, then proceed to clear their tools and hurry off before the police arrive. Amid all this, Joshi frantically tries to get the box of speakers, which he had taken out earlier, back inside the truck. Intercuts of the cops (Baburaj and Shabareesh) play as the music hits peak in a thrilling sequence of events, made all the more memorable by Alphonse’s editing and Rajesh’s composition.

Gold, which hit theatres on December 1, failed to create the magic that Alphonse’s previous movie Premam did. However, the movie did good pre-release business and had the second highest initial day opening for a Prithviraj-starrer after Kaduva earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the superstar is set to have another release to close out 2022 on a high, with Shaji Kailas’ Kaapa gearing up to hit theatres worldwide during Christmas. The movie also stars Asif Ali, Anna Ben and Aparna Balamurali.