Uttam scales new peak
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Uttam Singh has many memorable compositions to his credit but with this album he scales a new high. The album has become memorable for two other reasons. One, it features two poems of Amrita Pritam, and, two, it marks the film debut of Wadali brothers. The rest of the songs are by Gulzar, except one penned by Zehra Nigah.

Pain and poignancy of Partition seep into each and every song. The eternal suffering of woman down the ages is also highlighted.

Uttam has used the voice of his daughter Preeti in five songs. And she has done full justice to this opportunity. The album opens on a happy note with "Shaba ni shaba ..." but after that melancholy occupies centrestage. Amrita Pritam’s poetry is poignancy personified. Especially remarkable is her "Waris Shah nu..." rendered by Wadali brothers.

It is difficult to pick and choose from among the rest but my personal favourites happen to be "Haath chhoote bhi to ..." by Jagjit Singh and Preeti and "Sita ko dekhe ..." by Sadhana Sargam and Suresh Wadkar. Uttam Singh has joined Roop Kumar Rathod in singing the closing patriotic song "Vatna ve ..." and is it moving!

This big-budget Sunny Deol-Suniel Shetty-Ajay Jadeja-Celina Jaitley starrer has many debuts. The list opens with director Yusuf Khan, who is a well-known editor. The film has two music directors, Babu Mann and Daboo Malik. Babu has been on the Punjabi pop scene for quite some time. Daboo is the youngest brother of music maestro Anu Malik. With Khel, Daboo has now recorded his 100th song. The purely Punjabi style is only in Mainu chadh gayee ve sharrate naal... (Baboo Mann, Sukhvinder Singh and Rahul B. Seth). It has been penned by Baboo himself. The rest of the songs are a more cosmopolitan mix. The one that is promising big things is Chori chori mere dil ko churaya tune.... by Sunidhi Chauhan and Shaan. Moment of passion... by Kumar Sanu is also hummable.

Anu Malik has kept aside some of his best compositions for this Mahesh Bhatt film, directed by Vikram Bhatt. Nearly all of them are an aural treat.

Dhalne lagi hai raat...(Shreya Ghoshal, Sonu Nigam) is indeed the pick of the lot and it figures thrice in the album. Humsafar chahiye...(Alka Yagnik, Udit Narayan) reminds you of the Aashiqui days.

Shreya gives excellent account of herself in the solo deewana dil `85 and in the duet Ab humse akele raha jaye na...(with Sonu Nigam). Lyrics are by Rahat Indori, Praveen Bhardwaj and Dev Kohli.