AUDIOSCAN
Magic of Ali
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GHULAM Ali is one of those singers who turn even more versatile when they are in front of live audiences. While doing a recording, he has to confine to strict time limits, but while giving a live performance he can give full play to his genius.

In this album, that magic moment comes when he is sing Tishnagi jam gayee patthar ki tarah honthon par, doob kar bhi tere darya se main pyasa nikla. He stops over at jam and delineates this word in such a wonderful manner that the image of frozen pain conjures up before your eyes.

Equally moving is the folk song Lag gaye nain where the pangs of separation elevate his singing to a divine level.

Also included are several well-known ghazals like Dil mein ek leher si uthi hai abhi, Jinke honthon pe hansi pavon mein chhale honge and Fasle aise bhi honge hamein maloom na tha.

Shweta Pandit has a powerful voice. It is a surprise that she is not heard much in films. This private album seems to be an attempt to showcase her talent.

The good impression generated by the title song, which comes right at the start is carried further by Rangon bhara, Sitaron mein and Pehla hai nasha.

But the spell breaks once one moves to side ‘B’. Here she has packed remixes like Babuji dheere chalna and Shola jo bhadke but is out of depth. It is alright to say that there is no harm in doing so when even Asha Bhosle and Jagjit Singh are singing remixes, but somehow she is unable to pull it off.

Music has been composed by Shameer Tandon and lyrics are by Ajay Jhingran.

Dilip Sen-Sameer Sen usually work hard on their music but here they seem to be in a tearing hurry. There could be not other reason for the rough edges seen in most of the eight songs included in this album. Perhaps the fault lies more with mediocre lyrics, some of which (for instance Dard-e-judaai) do not even rhyme well.

This is despite the fact that the composers have taken the songs written by several lyricists like Aslam Sani, Jafer Sagar, Abhishek Ray (who has also composed Kala jadoo sung by Shreya Ghoshal and Abhijeet) and Shabeer Ahmed. Hum hai Indian is a patriotic song which has two versions.

This feature was published on January 31, 2004