At last, a blast. It's been a while since there was an enjoyable movie soundtrack by Nadeem-Shravan. Suneel Darshan's "Andaaz" was the last really rocking score by the estranged duo.
Straight from London, Nadeem sends his new album for his partner to put forward. For Suneel's brother Dharmesh Darshan, Nadeem pulls up his socks and gives us some tightly knitted, nimbly designed state-of-the-art masala numbers.
Udit Narayan's "Ek dilruba hai" and its flip-side Sonu Nigam's "Ek bewafaa hai" are as massy as they can get. Both the singers stress the key words to a point where the intensity of the thoughts gets thumped on the back beyond a mere statement of fact. This is serious designer-passion!
Skilful singing by both singers. So which version do I prefer? Hard to say. If Udit is happy and flirty, Sonu is angry and ferocious.
Clearly the event of this soundtrack is nightingale Lata Mangeshkar singing for Nadeem. Her first and so far only song for Nadeem-Shravan was "Door nahin jaa sakti tujhse" in 1988 for the film "Hisaab Khoon Ka".
And now Nadeem creates a pretty flighty melody for the 75-year-old nightingale.
"Kaise piya se main kahoon" isn't really a great song. But the thought of Lata giving voice to a fifth generation of heroines - in this case Kareena Kapoor - is extremely exciting to her fans.
The album conveys a very polished sound. Earlier in Dharmesh Darshan's "Dhadkan", Nadeem-Shravan had composed tunes that sat easily on the listeners' lips.
Lyrically, Sameer didn't scale poetic heights in either "Dhadkan" or "Bewafaa". Like the tunes the words are warm, accessible and user-friendly.
"Ab zindagi hai tumhari tamanna, sab kuch tumhe diye jaa rahen hain". Pretty direct...and uncomplicated.
But would Sameer like to explain what he means by "Chahat ke shabnam piye jaa rahen hain" in the track "Pyar ka anjaam" where Alka Yagnik and Sapna Mukherjee join throats with Kumar Sanu for a dreamy number in a romantic mood.
Abhijeet's "Ishq chupta nahin" and Ghulam Ali's "Teri yaad" are rendered with a lot of feeling. The emotive aspect has been stressed for the sake of effect. Though all the songs except Lata's "Kaise piya" are over-emphasised in mood.
Asha Bhosle and Shaan's "Kehta hai kabutar" tries to mimic R.D. Burman's "Mera naam hai shabnam" from the film "Kati Patang".