Raja Bhaiya: The next Govinda film in the pipeline. Chi chi bhaiya has been having so many flops lately, he's grabbed the Mumbai rights for this film and is aggressively promoting it. Govinda fans will note that he plays a Bengali for the first time. The story (did you have to even ask?) overdoes the been-there-done-that syndrome to death. The model going through the "demanding" motions in this film is Miss India Worldwide 2000 Aarti Chhabria. After being overloud in APD, she can't really expect to do much can she? On to the music. The songs on this album are strictly (sub)standard Nadeem Shravan "dhin-chaka; dha-chika" fare. Govinda, in his bid to do all he can for the film, steps before the mike after a long while, to add some zing to an otherwise mundane routine tune with pedestrian lyrics. Wonder why NS are back in business? They seem to have inherited all the wrong, boring, tiresome, soporific traits of their influences Shankar-Jaikishen and Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Grief. Sunidhi Chauhan still sounds fine in the horrendous "Don't Touch" (which incidentally reuses a sound sample that ARR looped in the opening of Thilana Thilana). They should have changed the lyrics to gheun Taak instead of don't touch. And is her duet partner Arvinder Singh the same guy responsible for Paani Sharaab Mein?
Ek Alag Mausam: Good title there. This is the Anupam Kher, Nandita Das, Rajit Kapur film about AIDS, directed by K P Sasi. It is only one of several slated low-key releases of the year. The music director is -- good old Ravi, who despite composing memorable tunes in Hindi films never got his due, and then had the last laugh by trumping three National Awards for songs he composed for Malayalam cinema. The first song Har Taraf (unfortunately sung by the dismal Anuradha Paudwal) is a good indication of the old wine: very very reminiscent of Ravi's tunes of yore (and unfortunately the children's chorus goes out of tune near the end). Ravi goes mildly electronic -- complete with disco sitar -- with the next song that marks the return of the painful voice of Nalin Dave (who made a disastrous splurge thanks to LP with aatii nahii.n -- was he talking about his singing abilities? -- in Prem), in tandem with Mohini Singh. The song, Safe Sex, may be lauded at best for its intentions -- otherwise you can skip this corny ditty. The next song Tara Rum Pum continues in the vein of most old Ravi songs mixed with an attempt at upgrading for the new generation. Sadly, Usha Krishnadas is not a very good singer. And there's little in the song that will hold your attention. And when Anupam Kher decides to sing, there's only one thing you can do -- well, two. (1) Scream "No!" (2) Yell "Next!". Tho.Daa pyaar had me humming Stand By Me, perhaps because of the chord progression. Nalin Dave sounds a little better this time. Gautam Sharma (who, if I am not mistaken, is the son of Pyarelal of LP fame) joins him for this one. GS is also responsible for a pop album called Funky Funky. And the female vocal riff in one of the interludes sent me back to the sessions recorded on No Quarter. A little instrumental pops up next. Skip. Hariharan steps up next with a 3/4 song usakii baarii (the situation [perhaps]: someone in the film just succumbed to AIDS). The melody is familiar, in an oh-so sort of way. I even got the feeling that this was a song meant for Yesudas. Another 3/4 song is next: usako paane se pahale, with Hariharan again. Mild and pleasant, and yes, gnawingly familiar yet again, and the song I keep thinking of the most is ghu.ngaruu kii tarah. Perhaps it's because of raag jhinjhoti. An Anuradha Paudwal version follows (boo!).
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