Song by Song: music review, Guzarish (Ghajini)

Last two months of this year are certainly going to be interesting. Salman Khan's Yuvvraaj, Shahrukh Khan's Rab ne Bana di Jodi, and now Aamir Khan's Ghajini. It's just absolutely wonderful. Especially in terms of music.

It rarely happens with AR Rehman that two movies with his music are being promoted at the same time. This time it's not just happening, but it's happening on big scale. Songs from Salman Khan's Yuvvraaj have not even passed their peak and you can listen to Ghajini.

Well, here I'm going to give you a review of the only song I have got from Ghajini. The song is called 'Guzarish' and is sung by no-Sonu-Nigam and Sonu Nigam. I mean, it's Javed Ali and Sonu Nigam together. The problem with Javed Ali is that you think it's Sonu Nigam and then you think it's not. It's the most effective way to identify him. But confusion comes in when Sonu Nigam is also there as he was in Nagada (Jab We Met).

Anyways, the song has some wonderfully simple and simply wonderful music by Rehman and I very much hope you'll be humming the track after listening to it once or twice itself. The song is the sweet romantic type quite like O ri Chhori of Lagaan, though the lyrics are not that good as of the latter. Actually the lyrics aren't bad but the name of Prasoon Joshi gives your expectations quite a rise which isn't completely matched with this song.

At the same time, one quality of the lyrics is their simplicity. 'Tu Meri adhuri pyaas pyaas, tu aa gayi man ko raas raas, ab to tu aaja paas paas' are really simple and you can remember the song even when yo listen to it for the first time. In short, the song is quite addictive as Rehman grips us all once again.

Hope we see more magic from Rehman and Prasoon in further songs of the movie.

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi Music Review

Finally, the wait is over. Aditya Chopra's next movie is all set for a release and the music is out there. Though the small number of songs, a total six, that is, with an instrumental and a slow version included, might be a bit disappointing, I hope you wouldn't be disappointed when you listen to the songs.

It might be a bit surprising for some people that the music for the film is not composed by the top three composer/duo/trio of India. (namely AR Rehman, Vishal-Shekhar / Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy for me) But if you see the track record of Yashraj's past few movies, you will find that Chopras have been trusting Salim-Suleman for some of their largest projects.

And once again they prove they deserve it.

Well, the album has four songs with no remixes, a relief I guess, a small slow version (remember Chalte-chalte of Mohabbatein?), and a medley. Out of the four songs, two are typical Aditya Chopra songs, meant to be hit and preserved in your collections, one is a not-that-long-lasting hip-hop and one is too good that you will surely enjoy, a lot if you're well familiar with old Hindi songs.

Starting with the songs individually, the first song Tujh mein rab dikhta hai is a wonderful song sung by Roop Kumar Rathod that anybody will like while listening for the first time itself.

One interesting thing i found with the song that when the song starts it reminds me of Veer Zaara, with the very first note played, and then it takes a turn to a complete new song. Roop's voice also generates a sense of Veer-Zaara as you see him singing for SRK yet again.

The second song, Haule Haule is already a hit I guess. The song comes with the power of Sukhwinder Singh and is a bit faster than the first one. The song has a bit of hip-hop flavor attached to it but all of that is prepared in typical Indian instruments. This song goes high in some places and Sukhwinder Singh sounds absolutely fantastic in those places.

Also, the lyrics of the song are quite lovable and you might like some lines a lot.

Third song Dance pe Chance maar le is a Sunidhi Chauhan song which is a complete hip-hop, a typical Sunidhi number. The song doesn't sound very good in the first listening, but history proves that Sunidhi's songs rarely fail. I guess this one is not going to be an exception and somehow, people will love this one too. Also, the voice of Labh Janjua is used for the song which might help in making the song more popular.

The fourth and last original song of the movie is Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte. (I don't know why I wrote Original) This song is some wonder by Salim Suleman and in fact Sonu Nigam as well. The song goes something like this, it opens with the background music of Awara Hoon, and mentions almost all Raj Kapoor hits in one para. Then we have Dil ka bhanwar kare pukar, jiya o jiya kuch bol do, pal bhar ke liye koi humein pyar kar le in second para, Yahoo and others of Shammi in next, then Rajesh Khanna, Dard-e-dil and some more for Rishi Kapoor. The mukhda of the song goes as 'Hum Hain Raahi Pyaar ke, Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte', which if you see a bit closely, are movies of Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, and Shah Rukh Khan respectively.

But I guess that is not all about the song. You need to listen to it yourself to enjoy the magic of the composers and Sonu. Special credit to Jaideep Sahni for the wonder-wonder lyrics.

The fifth song, a female version of Tujh mein rab dikhta hai is sung by Shreya Ghoshal and she has finely rendered the few lines given to her even though there is not much in store for her here.

The album ends with a medley which is not very good and feels like an extra addition. Or maybe it's here just as per the tradition. Whatever the reason be, overall Rab ne Bana di Jodi is a good album. So better buy it and put to your collection.

Can God survive past Ranbir?

August has been interesting in the movie circle and is expected to be interesting in the coming weeks too. With Singh is Kinng getting the it-had-to-be-like this huge response and Bachna ae Hasino and Rumy Jaffrey's God Tussi Great Ho slated for the next week, the battle seems far from ended.

Ugly and Pagli which came on 1st of August survived well and is expected to work with multiplex audience whereas Singh is Kinng is guaranteed to work well in public theatres, especially small towns and all.

Bachna ae Hasino which is set to see an August 15th release is expected to fare well too. And seeing these two, God Tussi Great Ho may find the going a bit difficult.

The interesting thing is that coming next week, things may get more confusing if movies release as per the dates available now. In present scenario, there are 6 movies that are to release on August 22nd: Tusshar's C Kkomapany, Bobby-Priyanka's Chamku, Rahul Bose-Mallika starrer Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam, Mumbai Meri Jaan, My friend Ganesha 2, and finally, Ram Gopal Varma's Phoonk.

Of these, Chamku, Mumbai Meri Jaan, and to some extent Phoonk look strong, though none of them seems to be a mass movie. My Friend Ganesha may find it difficult to reach their audiences. C Kkompany holds nothing special and should survive somehow for a few weeks. It will be worth seeing also if Rahul Bose works with Mallika as good as did Ranvir Shorey.

End of August brings Hijack which is not looking as strong on promos as it was going on talks, and Rock on!! that may well find it's new base among younger audiences.

Basically, after Singh is Kinng, there is not much that can be said about movies in August, but one thing that is sure is that we can find some good material with Chamku and Mumbai Meri Jaan out there. I wish Chamku is not another movie wasted by Bobby Deol as he's looking promising after a long time. Mumbai Meri Jaan is good on cast too, and the previews have been encouraging.

Summer 2008: Movies to Look For

2008 hasn't seen much in the name of hits. Where IPL became an instant hit with the ball crossing boundary line again and again, there were only two movies in the year, namely Jodhaa Akbar and Race, that crossed the boundary of hit. Nor have there been many movies that claimed critical acclaim, while 2007 had given a number of hits Guru, Chak De India, Om Shanti Om, Jab We Met and of course, Taare Zameen Par. Many of the movies were loved by critics also.

Well, that was the case with the movies released till now. But it seems that now there can be some change in the trends and I really hope for some good movies and hits too. Though Sarkar Raj hasn't brought very good results even after being good, there are a number of movies which must be good. So let's have a look.

Kay Kay Menon, Parvin Dabbas, Prashant Narayanan, Rajat Kapoor, Simone Singh, Sandhya Mridul, Sonali Kulkarni, Vinay Pathak. That's the cast of Via Darjeeling which is scheduled to release on June 20th. Whoever are the other people associated with the movie, the cast is expected to make a wonderful movie, which seems certain on seeing the promos of the movie. Though I do not expect the movie to be a blockbuster, it should be a great movie.



Next Friday, 27th June brings us Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic which is at least expected to fare quite good if not exceptionally well on the box office. The movie has a great soundtrack and the reviews have been good.

July seems to be the best bet with at least one movie every week to watch out for. The first Friday of July will see two long awaited launches -- Imran Khan, the nephew of Aamir Khan, in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, and Harry Baweja's son Harman Baweja in Harry's sci-fi flick, Love Story 2050. Music of both the movies is out and Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na seems to be leading the race till now as AR Rehman's music has helped Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na a lot.
The second Friday will be seeing Apoorva Lakhia's big budget project, Mission Istanbul. The movie has Zayed Khan, Vivek Oberoi, Sunil Shetty along with Abhishek Bachchan in an special appearance. Mission Istanbul is Apoorva's most ambitious project till date and Zayed Khan has even gained 11 kg for the movie. So it will be worth seeing if the hard work will result in the mission getting accomplished or not.

Kismat Konnection will be released on the third Friday of July. The movie is in hype since the day the promos have been launched. The first song of the movie has been getting wonderful response even before the complete soundtrack being released and with Pritam bearing the credits of music director, the movie is expected to have some wonderful songs.

The fourth and final week of July will bring hopes with Nagesh Kukunoor's Aashayein which was previously expected in May. Aashayein not only stars John Abraham but it probably has John as a singer too. Nagesh has been reported to have many 'Aashayein' from the movie after his last movie Bombay to Bangkok which was a disaster.

On the same day, there will be two more movies which have been in news a lot. First is money hai to honey hai which is directed by Ganesh Acharya. Second one is Ranveer Shorey-Mallika Sherawat starrer 'Ugly aur Pagli'. Ugly aur Pagli has started showing on TV channels and I must say I loved the first promo. Being a Ranveer Shorey movie, Ugly and Pagli is almost certain to have a certain part of audience but this will be worth seeing what results does his pairing with Mallika Sherawat bring.


The trend may follow for a few days as C Kkompany, Singh is Kinng and God Tussi Great Ho will be hitting theaters in August. So keep watching.