Bodyguard (soundtrack)

Bodyguard is the soundtrack to the 2011 film of the same name directed by Siddique Ismail starring Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor. The film's soundtrack is composed by Himesh Reshammiya and Pritam, with lyrics written by Shabbir Ahmed and Neelesh Misra. The 12-song soundtrack featured four tracks used in the film, while also accompanied by remixes, alternatives and a theme music. It was released by T-Series on 27 July 2011.

Development
Initially Pritam was considered to score music for the film and had curated four tunes for the film, but due to creative differences with Salman and Siddique, the former chose Himesh Reshammiya to replace Pritam as the composer. Reshammiya had collaborated with Salman on several of his films, whose music became successful. However, their last collaboration was on Kyon Ki (2005) before parting ways with Salman due to creative differences; Bodyguard marked their reunion after six years. The film was also Reshammiya's only album not to be released under his own label HR Musik, as he was involved in the project in June 2011, and T-Series acquired the film's music rights for ₹6 crore. Since the film was set for Eid al-Fitr (31 August 2011) release, all the songs were composed within one-and-a-half months. Producer Atul Agnihotri had revealed that Pritam's composition for the film "I Love You" would be included in the soundtrack and the film as well, thereby Pritam becoming one of the contributors.

Reception
Upon release, the album received mixed reviews from critics. Joginder Tuteja from Bollywood Hungama gave it 4 out of 5 stars, concluding: "The music of Bodyguard has in it to be hugely popular amongst audience as it has everything for everybody." Devesh Sharma of Filmfare awarded it 3 out of 5 stars and wrote: "Himesh, despite being a little rusty, is back in action and let’s hope he continues what he is best at and keeps his acting ambitions under check." Karthik Srinivasan of Milliblog wrote: "the only other strength of the soundtrack is the fact that Himesh resisted singing any of the songs and is named only as the music composer".

On the other hand, Sukanya Verma of Rediff gave it 2 out of 5 stars and described it as "very average as it tries in vain to recreate Wanted 's hit soundtrack." Similarly, Ruchika Kher of the Indo-Asian News Service also gave the album 2 stars and noted: "On the whole, the album is quite average. Though none of the songs is very bad, there isn't any that really stands out and grabs attention." Vinay Charaniya of Music Aloud while complimenting the album as "decent with couple of well picturised songs", he felt that it nowhere "close to Dabangg or even Ready".