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Taran Adarsh’s review of the film, Hastey hastey takes his personal animosity towards Naachgaana founder Rohit Karan Batra to new heights when he writes in the second sentence of his review, “The story idea, credited to one Rohit Batra, is so tacky, so banal, so obsolete, so lifeless that you break into a big yawn 10 minutes into the film”. Naachgaana is a regular bashing ground for all things Taran, but there are balanced voices too. The film may be terrible, but this personal dig is in very poor taste, given Taran Adarsh’s standing in India, regardless of his reviews.

Keywords: Rohit Karan Batra, Naachgaana, Taran Adarsh, IndiaFM, Bollywood Hungama

Sunoh’s ballad’ish tune is charming - Kkunal Sam’s arrangements are easy on the ears. Tu aa bhi ja - credited to Take That’s Beautiful World track, Patience – is uneven in Hindi. Subrato Ghosh and Joyit Lahiri’s Gungunade is lilting with fantastic arrangements by Joel. But, Joel’s composition in Yaadein, along with Nachiketa Chakraborty’s Halka halka are just passable. Shurjo Bhattacharya’s two tracks, the soulful Sanwariya and the lively, very-much-in-love Khushnuma, are the album’s highlights, the former, in particular with awesome vocals by Vasundara Das! Suzanne D’mello’s forcefully dancy Tere liye is bland, however. Three respectable tracks prop Babul’s self-titled album.

Keywords: Babul Supriyo, Sidelined forever singer

Raahat’s version of the title song is better than Rekha Bharadwaj’s, though both have too familiar a Vishal tune. Raghav’s two songs - Rang and Khwahish offer precious little, while Anand Raaj Anand contributes with the surprisingly decent Jeeta hoon and Rani - both with delightful vocals by Sonu Nigam and an old-worldly charm in the tunes. His other track, Oye hoye is mere hai hai. Pritam’s lone track with Labh Jajua and Hard Kaur, Agg lage, is functional but nothing like the groovy stuff we expect from him. Anand Raaj Anand wins the 4 cook broth that is Haal-e-dil.

Keywords: Amita Pathak, Nakuul Mehta, Adhyayan Suman, Raghav Sachar, Pritam, Vishal Bharadwaj, Anand Raaj Anand

With effervescent arrangements and a simple, lovely tune, Premani impresses instantly. The friendship song, Dost, goes one level up - bubbly, catchy and excellent orchestration conjured by the debutant composer. Karthik’s vocals are very apt in the world-has-hope melody track, Leletha puvvele while the techno number Tell me, albeit lyrically interesting, is routine, in terms of tune. The remaining three songs - the mellow Aalagake, the small’ish Neelo mediline and the soft Aaranavvulenduko are just about bearable. Vinu Thomas’ debut is no doubt impressive – the first three songs showcase his confidence in composing and working on zingy arrangements! Welcome Vinu!

Keywords: Hari Yelleti, Nikhil, Megha Burman

With its dose of assembly-line techno phrases, Kay Kay’s Aa gaya hun mein and Kunal’s Sach kehna are reasonably good, even as the moth-balled tune doesn’t gel with the mod arrangements. Jaane kaisi hai is trademark Anu Malik and is at least 10 years behind time. Alisha’s Lover boy is plain cheesy while Mausam achanak is a non-descript melody heading nowhere. Meelon ka jaisa tha fasla takes the cheesiness quotient one step further, but thankfully, Shaan infuses some life into the soundtrack with the very catchy, Milo na milo. For a futuristic movie, Love Story 2050’s music is pretty outdated.

Keywords: Harman Baweja, Priyanka Baweja, Priyanka Chopra, Boman Irani

It may be Murtuza-Qadir…the Rahman-touch, I mean! Amit Trivedi’s opening track, Ha raham is absolutely scintillating. Very Rahman’ish in its approach to the sufi tune, the bang-on arrangements and super singing. Amit gets behind the mike with amazing confidence in Chakkar ghumyo - yet another tune-driven song which wows with its frenzied vocals and mesmerizing folk tune. Haara is almost Moby - very progressive, unconventional arrangements that herald a new trend in Indian film music, and brilliantly sung by Amit! The softer parts in this track contrast amazingly with the more volatile phases. Neuman Pinto’s singing style is equally impressive in Phas gaya, another song that displays Amit’s musical inventiveness with some ground-breaking arrangements. With Ek lau, this album gets a marvelous, mellow drift, with its poignant tune and minimal, ably supporting orchestration and Shilpa Rao’s addictive vocals. The Climax theme is haunting no doubt, but with generous shades of Hans Zimmer’ish, Lisa Gerrard-styled vocals. After some very neat work in Abhijeet Sawant’s Junoon, thoughtful programming for Raman Mahadevan’s Ramanasia and Prashant Tamang’s Deewana, Amit Trivedi proves to be one of the most promising composers in recent times. Aamir is the most innovative soundtrack I’ve heard this year so far!

Keywords: Rajeev Khandelwal, Cavite

Baali main sone waali is an interesting techno-Maharastrian folk track that high on catchy rhythms and fab vocals by Sunidhi. I just wanna fly has ambitious arrangements, but a terribly average tune. Jaage hain is the highlight of the soundtrack - excellent rock base, with a lot of variations in the tune. However, Jaaniye Teri Ankhoke, which uses a similar rock base, over a decent tune, gets its true flavor better in the slower version. Kash mein is predominantly muddled while the title song is annoyingly disjoint! After a dismal show in Dus Kahaniyaan, composer Gourov Dasgupta continues to disappoint!

Keywords: Sikander Kher, Gul Panag, Divya Dutta, Uvika Chaudhary

Despite the 80s arrangements, and both Udit and Shreya sounding very 80′ish themselves, the melody in Maine hawa ke paron pe is endearing! The title song however just meanders and is painfully boring. Shamma shamma uses one of Vidyasagar’s chartbuster Tamil songs as a base but sounds pretty routine in Hindi. The soundtrack is largely salvaged by the very tuneful bidaai track, Jaana hai tujhko, sung with amazing grace by Alka and guest composer Tauseef Akhtar’s rhythmic, Pritam-styled, Ishq subhan allah, with the ever-dependable Neeraj Sridhar’s groovy vocals! Starting with zilch expectations, Mere baap’s soundtrack surprises with 3 decent tracks!

Keywords: Akshaye Khanna, Paresh Rawal, Om Puri

Composing trio Shankar Ehsaan Loy seem to have been stuck by the deadly Yash Raj sting where everything is stuck in never land, with little progress. Unlike Tashan, where Vishal Shekhar took us on an eclectic joyride, director Kunal Kohli strangles the trio into submission and gets trite, banal tracks. Including the breezy Pyaar ke liye and the ebullient Beetay kal se, the five track set is plain cheesy, despite desperate efforts by the composers. Considering what the trio is capable of, I suppose Kunal is to blame for this cringe-worthy mess. Not to mention the sappy, equally cringe-worthy title!

Keywords: Yash Raj Films, Rani Mukherjee, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Size Zero!

Ishq ada’s free-flowing sufi-tinged music has a trance like charm while Hawa sun’s gentle melody is reminiscent of Rahman’s Taal score. Gumsum sounds like a standard Bollywood product, with minor Rahman’ish twists and Gulfisha, despite the stylish orchestration, just passes muster. The composer croons the best track of the album, the dulcet, Meherbaan. Chitra’s Tu mera hai is very South Indian’ish in its tune and lyrics use, even though the track gets into a ghazal-like structure later on. The melancholy in Hai dard and Milo wahan seems forced and dated. Rahman’s music in Ada is strictly average and minimally involving.

Keywords: Tanvir Ahmad, A.R.Rahman