jhankaar!

The soundtrack for the second R D Burman tribute Jhankaar Beats is out. Thankfully, the songs aren't corporate-sanctioned remixes of old Pancham tunes. The title track establishes this tribute as Sudesh Bhosle (who else) breaks out in Pancham song, mimicking the late maestro's warbling cult classic duniya mein. Boss Kaun Hai is an over-too-soon unfinished free-form trivia-talk-athon about the late R D Burman. The tapori vein continues onto the next couple of forgettable Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy-esque numbers. The despicable Udit Narayan pops up. Shaan is beginning to sound too much like himself (wish I could explain that: accept it as an axiom, if you will). The occasional break is provided by pure modern-day Indipop. Pancham quotes in the form of lyrics, musical fragments (including the Bond theme, a favourite of RDB's) pepper the soundtrack. This leaves the title track as the only one I'd want to listen to again, alas, for reasons more nostalgic than musical. Perhaps even Boss Kaun Hai and Ruk Ruk (The music directors decided to use Amit Kumar, giving this song a touch of historical irony). Eschewing the conventional string arrangements seems to be the only USP for most of the new remixes and pop favourites. Pity. Apart from that avoidable detail, the old songs also stood out as examples of collective human endeavour and effort. These days it's all a stream of bytes. {review}