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Kaash (2000), and to some extent, Halka Nasha (2002, music by Utpal Biswas) were a new direction for the prolific singer, who’s ghazals I’ve come to completely adore, more specifically for his sonorous vocals - if you count out Colonial Cousins, since it was a joint effort with Leslie Lewis. Kaash gained significantly from Hariharan’s diverse music sense, while Halka Nasha floundered since Hariharan was not the composer. Waqt par bolna, however, is sung, composed and produced by Hariharan himself. The thoroughly enjoyable ghazal format is intact in tracks like Jab bhi miltey ho, Mere dil ki raakh, Woh sarphiri hawa and Maine teri aankhon mein, with a mildly tweaked mod sound, that blends elegantly with poignant wordings by Shakil Azmi, Bashir Badr and Amir Ghazalbash. Where the albums scores is in the experimental tracks like the very innovatively tuned title song and Dhoop kitni tej ho, and blue’sy tracks like Mujhko chhuke and Galat hai. Kesaria balamva gets yet another ho-hum rendition and Yun to haste is the only track that fails to make an impact. Waqt par bolna is another polished attempt at Urdu blues by Hariharan, where his ingenious composing skills and singing make all the difference.

Keywords: Urdu Blues, Hariharan

Note: 200 deserving words!

Karthik pitches his best in the slow and enticing, Arey rey, whose chorus pieces blend beautifully with the melodic phrases, while the rock’ish college-life track Jil jil jinga borrows mildly from Queen. The ballad-styled title song’s rock version has Naresh Iyer in top form with Mickey supporting him ably in the chorus and in the evocative backgrounds. O my friend is a mellow ode to friendship and Ye cheekati is a tad commercial, but predictably catchy. Shekar Kammula’s move from KM Radhakrishnan (despite Anand and Godavari!) to Mickey J Meyer seems to have earned him commendably interesting results!

Keywords: Mickey J Meyer, Shekhar Kammula

Kandha kadamba, like any hero-intro track, has every single cliche thrown in, in the name of lyrics and also dares to ask dating tips from none other than Lord Muruga. The techno melody in Uyire is barely passable, while O baby manages better on the listenability score thanks to a hummable tune and Rahul Nambiar’s enthu vocals. Devathaye vaa melodic phrases are pretty assembly-line and predictable. Ye aatha’s remix rocks only because the source itself is a cracker of a track, conjured decades back. That says much less about Manisharma’s score in Malaikottai – commonplace, uninspired and adequately boring.

Keywords: Mani Sharma, Vishal, Priya Mani, Priyamani

Megam’s mild hiphop’ish backgrounds overlap a cracking melody handled superbly by Haricharan and Shweta while the jazz-lined Andru vandhadhum is a competent re-tuning of the yesteryear classic, though it doesn’t reach New’s Thottal poo malarum’s standards. Kannamoochi’s tune cleverly fuses a mock track emanating out of the popular wedding ‘oonjal’ song, Kannoonjal aadi. Puthampudhu is uninteresting, but the Shankar Mahadevan, Madhushree duet Sanjaram is the pick of the soundtrack - interestingly rhythm’ed and very well orchestrated. The director showcased her nuanced sensibility in her debut and the music she’s got out of Yuvan here is both mature and thoroughly enjoyable.

Keywords: Prithviraj, Sathyaraj, Radhika, Sandhya, Kannaamoochi Enada

Pritam’s uptempo tune for Bheega Aasmaan - almost a breezier version of Halka halka sa, is adorable while Dil liya is a pale, listless knock-off of Pritam’s own Dhoom title chartbuster. Haadsa reeks of Pritam’s usual, mundane references and Namacool is maha-uncool. Add to that a completely lifeless All night long, which only forces its enthusiasm - much to our annoyance - you think the soundtrack is going haywire. But thankfully, the highly infectious title song makes up for the fatigue in true style. Its apparent that our man’s style is getting jaded but Dhol is saved by two good tracks.

Keywords: Sharman Joshi, Tusshar Kapoor, Kunal Khemu, Tanushree Datta, Rajpal Yadav, Om Puri, Payal Rohatgi, Arbaaz Khan

I had talked about Rahman and Bharatbala leveraging the sheer musical value of our national anthem, recently. It has now taken a ridiculous turn with a Chennai-based retired inspector filing a PIL against Rahman and Airtel’s Sunil Mittal. One of the complaints seem to be, “when this ‘remix’ was telecast, viewers were in various positions and thus unable to pay respect due prescribed…This amounts to dishonoring the anthem”. Holy crap! Apart from the fact that the anthem requires our respect from our heart, than the feet, the point behind honoring it when played should be linked to the circumstances and surroundings in which it is being played. If there’s a protocol that everytime the anthem enters your aural range you are supposed to stand still to respect it, I personally feel that such a protocol is completely beyond the scope of common sense. Hey, I’m crossing the road and the school on the opposite side starts playing the anthem just as I’m rushing away from a speeding lorry. So, I suppose I will die a martyr, huh? I’m utterly surprised that my joke of standing everytime the telly plays Rahman’s version is considered seriously enough worth a PIL!

Note: This PIL has been thrown out of the window by the court. Deservedly so!

Katra katra is a clear ace from Leslie - good combination of a lilting melody, wonderful lyrics and vocals by Mehboob and Sukhwinder, and superb arrangements. Jhanana’s in the same league - Chitra displaying amazing range while Leslie astonishes with the racy, fusion backgrounds. The very pleasant Dil ka tarana gains amazingly from Sunidhi and Shaan’s vocals while Shreya carries Chand re’s ghazal-like beauty on her own. With overdone, indipop sound, Shehzada’s the weakest link in the soundtrack. The imaginatively named instrumentals complement the overall mood of the album perfectly. Leslie Lewis’ soundtrack in Apna Asmaan is sincere and very charming!

Keywords: Apna Aasmaan, Lesle Lewis, Shobana, Irrfan Khan, Irfan Khan

The title song and Zindagi aa gayee aimlessly amble on to their illogical ends. Amit Kumar replaces his dad, along with Mahendra Kapoor-replacement Udit Narayan, in Do bechare’s remix. Viju’s techno additions do help in mildly salvaging this classic. Thoda sa thehro is a much better remix of the original ui-ma-hold-that-towel chartbuster. Deedani sees Viju trying to regain his lost ‘Gupt’ glory but this techno-melody never reaches those levels. He may be the right person to lay claim to this soundtrack, but Viju Shah’s work just doesn’t have the spark of his dad’s original.

Keywords: Ashok Kumar, Pran, Kalyanji-Anandji, Sonia Vinod Mehra, Jimmy Shergill

Nanhe yaar is clearly from Himesh’s sound bank of yore - typically from the Tere naam days, I suppose. Almost everything seems stretched and sappy - the prolonged prelude, the whole sound! Ulfat is more like it - the standard, high-pitched, nasal, annoyingly extra-stylish and hollow scream from the man himself while his reworking of the classic Kesariya is bland. Ranjhna is terribly monotonous and Lamha Lamha is the only track worth something, thanks largely to Sunidhi - but Himesh decides that this track deserved his nasality too and spoils a fairly neat tune. Ay Himesh bhai, kuch hatke bajaao na…please!

Keywords: Himesh Reshammiya, Reshamiyya, Bobby Deol, Oooooouuuuuuuu

Ouch! Thanks to Airtel, I’m required to stand up every time they air one of the mod, ambient versions of our national anthem! And, Airtel’s ad spend is so fabulous that I’m already dead tired. Here was a song - enough of anthem-shanthem - which was relegated to the corner of a protocol. And it took Bharatbala, Kanika and Rahman to dig a now-nondescript song and bring back its forgotten, musical quality. The only thing that irks is that this is a 7 year old material first released by Sony in 2000 - I do understand the 60 years sentiment though!

Credits: Vocalists: D K Pattammal, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Lata Mangeshkar, Pandit Jasraj, Balamurali Krishna, Jagjit Singh, Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty, Shobha Gurtu, Begum Parveena Sultana, Bhupen Hazarika, Ustad Rashid Khan, Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan, Shruti Sadolikar, S P Balasubramaniam, Sudha Raghunathan, Asha Bhosle, Hariharan, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Unnikrishnan, Nityashree, Saddiq Khan Langa, Ghulam, Murtaza Khan, Ghulam Qadir Khan, Kaushiki Chakrabarty

Instrumentalists: Flute: Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia; Sarod: Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Amaan Ali Bangash, Ayaan Ali Bangash; Santoor: Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, Rahul Sharma; Ghatam: Vikku Vinayakram, Uma Shankar; Mohan Veena: Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt; Saxophone: Kadri Gopalnath; Chitraveena: Ravikiran; Veena: E Gayathri; Sarangi: Ustad Sultan Khan; Sitar: Pandit Kartick Kumar, Niladri Kumar; Violin: Kumaresh, Ganesh