Umrao Jaan is Alka Yagnik’s show all the way. But Anu Malik chooses to tread a safe path by using a time-tested original sound with very little innovation to depict the period in which the remake is being attempted. This doesn’t come out even in terms of orchestration which sticks to the archaic and adds to the overall tedium! Behka diya and Pooch rahe are the only two tracks that redefine the film’s period feel within a more modern sound. While I’ve little to protest about the rest, the clear lack of stretching any imagination is the soundtrack’s biggest undoing.
Keywords: Anu Malik, JP Dutta, Javed Akhtar, Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachan, Muzaffar Ali
View Comments to "Umrao Jaan (Hindi – Anu Malik)"
1 | Arun
October 4th, 2006 at 4:55 pm
I couldn’t quite understand whether you liked the soundtrack or not.
I certainly did,each and every song is a gem in itself.
One of Anu’s Best for sure!!
Agle Janam,Salaam,Behka Diya are the ones topping my list.
2 | Karthik
October 4th, 2006 at 5:01 pm
Didnt really enjoy it, though, considering what Anu has done (pander to popular appeal and redo what has been done earlier, with new voices) there’s nothing much to complain since it has been intended to be likeable generally. My grouse is that Anu really didnt bother to innovate the sound. And to me the entire soundtrack is rather tedious because of that…but again, its just my opinion!
3 | Yaju Arya
October 4th, 2006 at 8:21 pm
Agree with Karthik here… Anu has a lot of potential and even though the album is good it doesn’t showcase what Anu could have done. First plagiarism stopped Anu from reaching a cult status and now this may prove to be another of his undoings. He has indeed done a good job, but not path-breaking.
4 | Arun
October 5th, 2006 at 12:05 am
Fair Enough!!But except ARR and maybe Ismail Darbar,I doubt whether anyone else could’ve done better.
and btw,I just feel Kavitha,with her classsical base and amazing range, would’ve been a better choice than Alka Yagnik.
5 | Sneha Kochak
October 5th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
I agree with Kartik too. Most of the tracks left me waiting for the goosebumps. Kudos Alka Yagnik. JP Dutta movies have always had Anu Malik for music and the combo has usually spins out one or two good songs (Like Border and Refugee). Ismail Darbar would have done a better job for sure.
6 | Hariharan
October 5th, 2006 at 5:21 pm
Darbar would have been the perfect choice for this film as Rahman is too busy with his other projects. Nonetheless, Anu has created some listenable tunes for this film, but like all of you have said, they’re not pathbreaking. But still, a job well done.
7 | Karthik
October 5th, 2006 at 8:56 pm
Yes, Darbar should have been a very interesting choice for composer. After that glowing review on IndiaFM I was kinda expecting the moon, so was very surprised that Anu has really not broken any ground worth such high praise.
8 | Ravi
October 6th, 2006 at 9:03 pm
Well, for a film like this, melody stands tall rather than sound or orchestration. Agreed that a couple of songs give u a deja-vu and have that old world feeling or charm but otherwise the whole album is a master piece. By the way who is this Ismail Darbar – a two film wonder…. I think he better remain where he is.. judging shows on television and in between giving shit music like …. i don’t even remember the names of his films….Not sure how Rehman would have approached this film… any case i am not a big fan of classical songs given by him.. would rather prefer a yuva or dilse or rang-de-basanti over lagaan.
9 | Ravi
October 7th, 2006 at 8:43 am
The songs are decent all right, but do not deserve the glowing reviews on indiafm and elsewhere. In fact, other than salaam and agle janam, the rest of the songs all meld into one – with similar sound, melody and rhythm.
10 | Ravi
October 7th, 2006 at 5:50 pm
Whoever was that please change the name while giving a comment.
11 | Ravi
October 7th, 2006 at 6:16 pm
I think you need to give atleast a decent no of hearings before each song starts giving its own identity. Even on the first hearing i felt that i am hearing the same song again and again. But now after listening to the album atleast 5-6 times i really feel that each song is a master piece in itself(agreed a feeling of deja-vu here and there but nothing stops it from becoming a master piece.)
When it comes to A.R.Rehman, every critic/fan comes up with the statement that you need to listen to the songs a few no of times before it gets to you. I don’t understand why they don’t apply the same criteria to Anu Malik’s songs.
12 | Arun
October 7th, 2006 at 7:50 pm
^^ I second that.Well Said!
13 | Jemsheed
October 9th, 2006 at 10:24 am
Its very pathetic to know that the titletrack(Salam) its is a lift..
14 | Rishi
October 10th, 2006 at 3:53 am
It’s a nice soundtrack, but as has been mentioned, it had potential to be so much better. I personally liked the soundtrack for Refugee a lot more.
The problem with Umrao Jaan is simply the arrangements from number to number don’t vary enough and there is the aforementioned lack of innovation.
15 | Arun
October 11th, 2006 at 6:52 pm
With due respect,I dont know why such a fuss is being made about “new sound”.
Anu Malik has treaded the safe path,understably so,because he was dealing with such a big project and he didn’t want to take a risk.
More than the “sound”,Im glad he atleast produced some nice,simple melodies.
16 | Ravi
October 12th, 2006 at 12:57 pm
Anu did some experimentations for Asoka and though the songs were brilliant but they didn’t really set the cash counters on fire. Also he got some flak for using modern intruments in the songs though this flak should actually go to the Arranger (Ranjit Barrot). So Anu as expected has taken a safe root and given a rather predictable but melodious numbers. As for lack of innovation, I really doubt if out of seven songs, four are set on Mujra background and within the same premises, any type of innovation is possible. May be greats
like Ismail and Rehman would have bought some innovation.
About the copied(inspired) song, if the Nadeem Shravan song is the original one then I would give Anu a big hands up for creating such a good song from such an ugly number. If the original is some other old song or a pakistani number then I will wait for it to come out and later decide whether Anu is guilty of plagarism.
17 | Funny No?
October 21st, 2006 at 8:18 am
Err, you wanted ‘new sounds’ for a period film like Umrao Jaan
Maybe Pritam’s tecno-shit was what u wanted, eh? Yeah, Umrao dancing to beats… seriously, what’s wrong with this generation!
And Darbar? Ha ha ha, all we wud hv got was wailing alaaps in name of music. Barring two songs, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam was shouts, loud aaaa’s and ooooh’s mixture with no structure!
18 | Ravi
October 21st, 2006 at 8:20 pm
Right said buddy…..
19 | Ravi
October 21st, 2006 at 8:26 pm
Problem with today’s generation (Karthik and co..) is that after so much exposure to world music and techno music from Rehman and his clones, they have forgotten what melody stands for…..
20 | deepak
October 25th, 2006 at 7:43 pm
I’ve one comment to make…rahman has churned out lot of good melodies, just saying that he is techno doesn’t make any sense…This is a good album from Anu no doubt but just because he come up with some better than avg. donesn’t proove that he is good…it still needs to be proved how many nubers in this album has been lifted (one for sure is a lift) rest will decide how good anu is…
21 | Jaydeep
October 26th, 2006 at 1:44 am
Like a few others, I think that though Anu Malik never achieved a cult status (becoz of plagiarism n chosing quantity for quality), he has done a lot of good work. And Umrao Jaan is one of them. First & foremost he should be given credit for not getting influenced by hugeness of khayyam’s Umrao jaan. Anu has created a entirely fresh sounding album, maintaining its individuality without missing the feel of the genre. Its a superlative effort. About salaam, I would like to believe (until original source is revealed) resemblance to be a coincidence & not an inspiration as NS’s Dhoom machi was probably not given a second hear by composers themselves.
22 | andrea
November 21st, 2006 at 7:46 pm
I am thoroughly enjoying this soundtrack. It does seem to suffer a bit from the repetitiveness and unimaginativeness you mention, but as a period soundtrack in one style of singing it’s not so bad. Other styles would have made this soundtrack better. However, Alka ji sings so beautifully and Richa (Sharma?) version of agle janam makes me want to cry it is so lovely. favourite track is Salaam … hoping that it is not a lift !
Comment Form