pandit treasure ...

The problem with a movie that bites the box office dust is the loss of a potentially promising soundtrack ... Thanks to Aditya for drawing my attention to one such soundtrack: Jatin Lalit's efforts for Sangharsh, the Tanuja Chandra-helmed disastrous desi version of The Silence of the Lambs (yes, murder with hams and songs). This is a curious soundtrack. Sonu Nigam sounds more like Mohd. Rafi (which is who he sounds like to begin with) here than in any other album: check out mujhe raat din bas (which incidentally sounds like an old Rafi song (zamaane ne maare from JL-favourite RDB's soundtrack for Bahaaron ke Sapne and mujhe dekhakar aapka muskuraana from Ek Musafir Ek Hasina) and also includes a sample motif from Paul Anka's Bring the wine, which JL first used in jaana suno for Khamoshi - the musical. The first song on the album, dil ka qarar is JL's take on the Nadeem-Shravan style of music (which apes a mix of the SJ/LP styles of music), except the dholak rhythms are better (even more RDB-like, especially a little variation that harks back to machal machal jaata hai dil). Then there's the wonderful yet neglected naraaz savera (plug: the Firodiya Karandak entry for 2002 from my undergrad alma mater COEP included this song in their playlist). Just as Vishal's undoing has been a Lata (read: a lotta) Mangeshkar, JL's undoing is twin: Goan yoddler Remo Fernandes and Dharaavi Diva Jaspinder Nirula. In other words, skip/erase manzil na ho koi whose only saving grace comes from some catchy interlude riffs (and a coda that quotes liberally from the extended opening of the R D Burman classic Piya tu ab to aaja). There are also signs of the Pandit mafia here, what with another sister (Shraddha Pandit) popping up.

If there's just one song you must listen to, choose Sanu's naraaz savera with rather competent lyrics from Sameer.