Jis jagah pe khatam is one of those few songs where the chorus vocals completely rule over the main tune; understated, but immensely catchy. Jhoom jhoom‘s ambitious backgrounds actually hold a fairly retro-styled tune – engagingly sung by Ritu Pathak; as are Siddharth Basrur and Arijit Singh’s techno variants! Yashita Yashpal confidently rocks the templatized, [...]

Haal-e-dil is gorgeously resonant! The track is treated appropriately by the composers; minimal music and even that tabla (or, is it mridangam? Valid query from @Sharathpadaru) entering later in the track adds great value! The title song is a nice, catchy acapella gimmick, including vocalizing the electric guitar to decent results! In comparison, the dub [...]

Dum maaro dum’s remix works appropriately by not redoing it as-is and cleverly incorporating choice elements from the original in a funky mix; kudos to Midival Punditz and Karsh Kale, credited for additional Dum Maaro Dum riff! Ash King, Sunidhi and Mohit profess love in Spanish across 3 versions of Te amo; passable and predictable [...]

Bourne? Don? Moody? Atmospheric? It’s a game seems like a combination of all this and functions effectively as a title credits song. Sunitha Sarathy offers a neat, low-pitched title hook in the reprise. Kaun hai ajnabi takes off from the title song and is a catchy, energetic mish-mash. Maine yeh kab is predictable kumbaya material [...]

Yeh des hai has a strong Rahman whiff and works quite well! Nain tere whips up a decent Bong feel, but is a bit too simplistic, while Sohail gets it right in Sapne saloney, a strikingly pensive melody with wonderful vocals. The anthemic title song and Vande Mataram by Cine Singers Association Chorus Group are [...]

If I were to sum up what went wrong in Raavan, it’d perhaps be, ‘Ramayan killed the Raavan star’. In other words, nothing is wrong with Raavan – the audience’s expectation of it being Ramayan’s retelling is the problem. There is enough intelligence pumped by Mani into this film but unfortunately the country is very [...]

Mudhi mudhi (and Udhi udhi) is one of the trendiest songs of the year; zingy, superbly sung by Shilpa Rao and exceptionally orchestrated! Gumm summ, after its various versions – one in Hindi itself (Aur ek prem kahani’s Sunday ko), still sounds as lilting as the original, Olangal’s Thumbi vaa. Hichki is muddled, at best, [...]

Aarti is piously serene while Arziyan pulls off the same thing with aplomb, just in another religion. Shreya Ghosal compliments Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan amazingly well in the classically inclined, Bhor Bhaye, even as Rahman treats this song with the respect and austerity it deserves. The title song is über cool – superb vocals [...]

Dostana is one of those mixed bag soundtracks that has Vishal and Shekhar sticking to their familiar, tried and tested sounds. So, while we have a bouncy Jaany kyun with fab vocals by Vishal, we also have a terribly cringe-worthy Desi girl! Saleem’s Ma da laadla is good fun with catchy hooks, while Shut up [...]

The title song has an intriguing structure which the composer reigns in admirably – his unconventional voice only adds to the novelty. Khushi’s jazz appeal is overshadowed by the ambling tune, while the very catchy Oop cha, despite that Pritam-like sound, has enough variations from Dhruv to call it his own. Bandagi is the real [...]