"Dekha ek khwab to yeh silsiilay huey" sang the divine Lata Mangeshkar and Kishore Kumar in Yash Chopra's "Silsiila". Well, there is no Shiv-Hari or Javed Akhtar in the similar sounding "Silsiilay" here. But hear hear! What Himesh Reshammiya and Sameer dish out is also worth a cursory 'listen'.
Nothing here that makes you sit up and stare in stupefaction at there are arresting moments here and there that keep you listening. slip-and-slide of the soundtrack. But I love the way lyricist Sameer uses the word 'belibaas' I don't think I've ever heard that word in a Hindi film song, specially in the context of the soul being laid bare. Sunidhi Chauhan with some help from Jayesh Gandhi titivates the "Belibaas" number.
It's the most interesting track in the album. Many of the other love ballads border on the over-sweet. It could have something to do with Alka Yagnik's voice wafting with vapid sweetness in "Ban jaiye". Kunal Ganjawala, whose stocks have soared since he sang "Bheege honth" in "Murder", gives the ballad a semblance of balance.
Kunal is joined by the neglected Sadhana Sargam in the ordinarily orchestrated "Meri jaan". But it's Sonu Nigam who grabs attention, as he bursts into a fury of rippling cadences in the title song. The back beats here seem borrowed from Nadeem Shravan's "Ankhiyan milaaon kabhi" in "Raja". But what the heck! As long as the feet get tapping and the hands get clapping no one is complaining.
By that reckoning Alisha Chinoy does well for herself in "Tere liye". But you can't really take her vocals, or those of other singers attempting to impose on the tracks, very seriously. The tunes aren't serious enough.
This isn't an album that begs for any serious listening. You would be mildly diverted by Reshammiya's rhythms. You'd also wonder along the smooth and over-smoothened path why the composer has missed out on a song about the 'odhni' or 'dupatta' in the album. But the absence of Reshammiya's pet props doesn't make this album unusual.
At the end you miss that one 'IT' track that Anu Malik created for director Khalid Mohamed in "Fiza". There's no "Mast mahaul mein jeene de" -- in that sense this album is quite belibaas (naked).