“Dostana” Music Review – Vishal-Shekhar

As promised...Just finished writing it yesterday night...

First of all, let me start by saying that this movie is based on some English movie where 2 guys (Abhishek B. and John A. in this case) pretend to be gay to vie for attention from the girl (Priyanka C.)...Movie is being produced by Karan Johar, so guesswork gets eliminated even before picking up the album about how the music is going to sound like…expecting same formula over and over again, no change what so ever!! Also, as a side note, looks like Karan Johar is finally getting strength to tackle his real genre…you know what I mean… J

So I started listening to the album with the preconceived notion that it should be no different from any earlier music from his production house but hoping to the surprised… and since Vishal-Shekhar have come up with some good music in the last year (Om Shanti Om, Tashan, Bachna e Haseeno) it made me look forward to listening to the album.…

Jaane Kyon – Good song, actually very good…sounds more like jaane kyon from dil chahta hai (lyrics very different though)…slightly faster…very nicely sung and peppy…feel good love song…
Desi Girl – Oh, what do I say about this one…It is as cheesy as it gets, but still lots of fun! In the first listening itself, you will not be able to stop your feet from moving along with the song…also with typical lyrics, I can see this song being played and replayed and then some in every marriage in India for the next season… give it one hear and you will know what I mean…
Maa Da Laadla – Ok, this is a funny one…typical Punjabi beat oriented song… has some imaginative lyrics “Heer mili na usno ye ranjhe upar mar gaya…J”, but works in general…pretty good but again no different from previous songs you have heard before….
Bounce – Same old stuff again…beat oriented song tries to sound like “Its time to Disco”…
Khabar Nahin – Nice fun song…slower in nature...good to listen to... Also, another thing to note in this one is that it is sung by “Amanat Ali”, who was one of the runner-up in last year’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa…
Kuchh Kum – Very nice slow and soft flowing song….probably the best in the album…good to listen to when you want to relax after a long day…

The problem I have with current day hindi songs is that they are in “Hinglish”…which has started to trouble me more than anything else…Every song is a mish-mash and it is like you have to have English in your songs otherwise, they won’t work! I don’t agree with that…Anyway…enough of rant…I digressed…

The thing with this album is that in spite of the fact that every song works and not a single song is bad, there is nothing new in it… There is no song like “Mitwa” from Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna to make it special. You have heard this sound hundreds of times before but you still enjoy it…So, I thought may be this time Karan Johar had the courage to produce something different, but like always, it is more of the same formula! You can easily code this soundtrack as Music Director = Karan Johar and not Vishal-Shekhar.

My ratings for the album:

“Use-and-Throw” Value = High (Listen to it for a month, forget it afterwards)
“More of the Same” Value = High (You have heard it multiple times before)
“Mass Appeal” Value = High (Will be very popular)
“Overall” = Above Average (Worth Listening)

Next up will be review of Yuvvraaj…I am really looking forward to it…I hope it is good…though most of the times when I look forward to some album so much it generally does not turn out to be good…as it typical with any A R Rahman soundtrack, I will have to listen to it multiple times before I can write anything on it…J I may write a quick review of music of Fashion and Golmaal Returns if I get a chance…until then…