Directed by  Nagesh Kukunoor

Produced by  Percept Picture Company and T-Series

Written by  Nagesh Kukunoor

Starring  Akshay Kumar, Ayesha Takia, Sharmila Tagore, Javed Jaffrey

Music by  Salim-Sulaiman, Bohemia, Neeraj Sridhar

Cds by  T-Series

8 X 10 Tasveer, Nagesh Kukunoor’s latest psychological/supernatural/sci-fi thriller released early April seems to have bombed at the box office – the film’s music, which was eagerly anticipated, has unfortunately been met with poor response and many a scathing review. And after listening to the tracks in the album, I figured that this might actually be turn out to be a very short (and not exactly sweet) review since out of the 10 songs in the film, 2 of the songs have the same tune with different lyrics and these and the remaining 3 have remix versions as well………talk about the remix virus that seems to be thriving in Hindi film music nowadays!!

Salim-Sulaiman, Neeraj Sridhar (of Bombay Vikings fame) and Bohemia have composed the music for the film with 2 songs composed by the duo and 1 each by Neeraj and Bohemia.

Aaja Mahi – A song that is written by Sameer and composed by Neeraj Sridhar.  This fairly uncomplicated melody is sung by Neeraj and Tulsi Kumar, daughter of late Gulshan Kumar who does fairly well  – Tulsi’s pleasant rendition and the neat harmonizing with Neeraj contribute towards making this a soft and pleasing number.

Haafiz Khuda – this song with lyrics by Irfan Siddiqui and sung by Mohit Chauhan and Tulsi Kumar has a ‘much heard before’ feel right from the start…a typical soft rock number with predictable turns and arrangements.  Mohit has a lazy and almost guttural style throughout the song while Tulsi ambles along sounds soulful and romantic.

Kuch is tarah has the same melody as Haafiz Khuda with different lyrics– maybe the replication of tune with different lyrics might be situational and to suit the narrative…but this again makes for repetitiveness and monotony…imagine having to listen to the same tune on one album not once but four times (even with two of them being remix versions!).

I got the picture, the title track by Bohemia, the well known US based rapper of Pakistani/Punjabi origin is fast paced and again the very standard Indi-rap that is being churned out in most films now.  The lyrics are a mix of English and Hindi and though the video of the song is very racy and flashy, there is nothing exceptional about the song itself!

Nazara hai – This heavily rock number is a lot more intense and passionate than the others in the album, and even though the refrain sounds like it is borrowed from older rock favourites, Vishal Dadlani who belts out his vocals with a lot of energy and effervescence does a pretty good job.

The remixes of all the songs are as usual fast paced avatars of the original and could be classified as ‘lounge’ and ‘pub’ music that seem to be in vogue today.

My rating for this album would be 2 and a half out of 5………….the reason being that a couple of songs while not brilliant are pleasant enough for more than one hear. Unless one is a great fan of Bohemia or Bombay Vikings, this album will certainly not be missed in your music collection………….

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