interesting soundtracks ... and some laughable censorship lapses

Been tuning in to some recent medium-to-low-profile desi soundtrack releases. A global comment: Sonu Nigam sucks, imho. I don't know what irks me most about him: his girlishness, his inability to sing songs worthy of his calibre, his stupid videos. his worthless image ...

* Oops!: This is Deepak Tijori's directorial début (he also has writing credit) and it owes a lot to The Full Monty. The songs on the soundtrack (by Ravi Pawar) are peppy. They aren't landmarks, but they have more spunk than some of the tripe dished out by the Nadeem Shravan school of music and the fairly predictable efforts of Anu Malik and A R Rehman.

* Mumbai Matinee: A fairly decent effort. For its sheer audacity and entertainment value, my pick is the Ode to Freud. And another plug for Joe Alvares (Pancham fans will remember him for "There could be so much joy to living" in Zamane Ko Dikhana Hai) singing Shame emulating the throaty passion of B B King. The lyrics suffer from a slight case of corn though.

* Chupke Se: This is the latest effort from the productive Gulzar/Vishal collaboration for the directorial début of Shona Urvashi, who happens to be the late Gul Anand's niece. (For those not in the know, Gul Anand is responsible for producing such gems as Chashme Baddoor, Jalwa, and the uneven nugget Hero Hiralal). Unfortunately, I couldn't latch on to the songs. The lyrics didn't grab me either. The mix is interesting: a guest song by Ranjit Barot, a duet with Asha Bhosle and Adnan Sami, and a song by Daler Mehendi. This leaves me in doubt about Vishal's contribution to the whole album. Perhaps a repeat listen will help matters.

Next up: Joggers' Park, Pinjar, Dogs

Wasn't anyone paying attention?: This is probably a nice time to bring up an interesting discovery. Our music and movie censors have been fairly active, latching on to violations both minor (laughable) and major (gratefully!). They missed the boat on the Aflatoon soundtrack by Dilip and Sameer Sen, featuring the predictable vocal gibberish of Remo. The song in question is the title song. About 2 minutes and 46 seconds into the song, you can hear a refrain that goes "terii maa.N kii c****". B-song lovers will relish the song nevertheless, but the glaring complacency of the crowd that lynched Anu Malik for the use of the word 'sexy' in the Khuddar song is appalling. Good reason to catch the song again, what?