AUDIOSCAN
Rahman in his element
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Here is one of the most powerful film albums from A.R. Rahman. The magic is wrought not only by good music but also by the wonderful lyrics.

Rahman has now become mature enough to dispense with fast beats and frenzied tunes. Soulful songs like Aapko mujhse na shiqwa hota (sung in separate versions by Sujata Bhattacharya and Vijaya), Mujhpe toofan uthaye logon ne (Sujata Bhattacharya) and Sabaq aisa (Sujata Bhattacharya) that he now comes out with are a delight.

That does not mean that the songs set to dance music are not there. In fact, there are two such gems. Khoyee khoyee ankhen by Shaan and Meherbaan meherbaan (Asha Bhosle, Sukhvinder Singh) are on the ascent on the popularity charts, thanks to the screening of film songs on various TV channels.

Lyrics of some of the songs are traditional. The rest have been penned by Javed Akhtar. That makes sure that the perennial weakness of Rahman songs, bad lyrics, is not there this time. In fact, it has been more than compensated to wipe out the previous shortcomings.

Here is a compilation of some original and some remix songs. The album draws its name from a chorus sung by Sukhvinder Singh, Jasbir Jassi and Abbey. Abbey is a young performer who is earning a reputation through the Aye Sanam video from the hit album Josh as well as the mega hit of last year, the film song Khallas.

Then there is Chhalak chhalak from Devdas, Mamaiya kairo mama from Arjun and Yahan ke hum Sikandar from Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar and Yaaran di yaari by Sahotas.

Among the re-mixes are songs like Kamli yaar di kamli, Jhoom barabar jhoom sharabi and Chappa chappa charkha chale, which has been sung by Javed Ali. The stress is on tipsy beats.

Things are even more chaotic in this remix bundle created by Jawahar Wattal. There is hardly any similarity with the originals in this major surgery.

The nine songs featured here have been sung by Yash Srivastava. Whether it is Rama Rama gazab ho gaya re with which the album opens, or Tu raat khadi thi chhat pe mein samjha ke chand nikla, they are all in the male voice.

Even the lyrics of many of the songs have been changed to suit this gender change. For instance, Oui oui ma ye kya ho gaya becomes Muniya muniya re muniya.

This feature was published on November 22, 2003