Before I get onto specifics, I wanna doff my non-existent hat to director Sanjay Gupta for ushering in a completely new style of film music for an entire hindi film. Zinda's score sounds like nothing else before - a very stylish mix of lounge n club, with loads of trance and rock. Zinda is a superb album, with several excellent tracks that will soar up the charts and clog airplay across radio stations. Or I'll buy a hat and eat it!
The best tracks, in this order, are:
Yeh Hai Meri Kahani - Composed and Performed by Strings, lyrics by Anwar Maqsood
Definitely the Hindi rock ballad anthem of the Year! From the first bar, this cool melody with a stylishly undulating beat just beckons you and you follow it, gaping, as the strong guitar chords and lead riffs syncopate across a powerful, filled out beat. And the lovely lyrics reach a true high with Strings' excellent, powerful vocals. A very very stylish and powerful song that's gonna find itself in all the charts, regardless of language! Remember how Rehman's "Humma Humma" set the charts ablaze across the world, including Germany and Australia when it first appeared?
Har Saans - Sung By Krishna, Music by Nikhil Chinappa and D J Nawed
This track's gonna set every club floor on fire! It begins with a brilliant disco-trance beat that grabs you roughly by the lapels, yanks you up to your feet, and drags you to the dance floor. A very stylish synthetic trance beat with a tight bass riff that works as a lead piece too, and then Krishna's excellent earthy rasping oh-so-sufiyana vocals grab the song by its collar and we're off and away to a truly stylish blend of trance n disco. Krishna excels! And this is just the kind of truly stylish track that would be grist to super-slick director Sanjay Gupta's mill. Can't wait to see what he's made of it in Zinda. And hey, also check out the lounge version of the same song on the album - it's equally cool!
Zinda Hoon Main - Performed and composed by Shibani Kashyap, arranged by Julius Packiam.
You know what? Another version of the same song by the same singer on this very album was, well, very very average! I'm referring to the "delirious dance mix" version of this song, which made me swear to myself that whoever thought of that parenthetical descriptor was either all mixed up or delirious. Sure, it's got an uptempo beat and a trance-like fill to the sound, but that's where the plus side ends. On the most important aspect - the vocals-this song fails to deliver. Shibani Kashyap's thin, nasal wail jars, and the interlude melody (if you can call it that) is limlted to percussive riffs and efects. Not happening. Hit `next' on this one.
But wait! A little bit later, I heard the other version of the same song - the lounge version arranged by Julius Packiam, and I thought: Oh My God! It's the same voice and tune as in the first song I reviewed and panned, but just look at what a different arrangement does to the same composition! A truly amazing lounge number, eminently danceable, with great music, brilliantly packaged! Another lounge charts leader! Fabulous track! Reminds me of my favourite underground groovers, Groove Armada and more. Truly kick-ass!!!
Chal Rahi Hai Saansein - Sung by Kailash Kher, written by Sanjay Gupta, music by Nikhil Chinappa, DJ Nawed; additional music by Kinky Roland.
You really wanna enjoy this song? Curl up with a drink, turn the lights low, and brace yourself for a somber, very existential question: Kya Main Zinda Hoon?! And when it's Kailash Kher asking it in heartrending fashion to a track that's actually made up of successive percussive SFX hits that echo along as the song progresses. well, you've got a truly unique track that's really different. Kailash Kher hits remarkable highs with (apologies to Keats) full throated ease, and the rasping fervour of his voice keeps you in a trance. Very different indeed, and something only Kail