sa.ngeet

Grahan: This was a long-in-the-making K Shashilal Nair film, whose claim to fame in the musical milieu was the music-directorial début of Ilayaraaja's son Karthik Raja. All I remember, besides vid previews featuring aaj mai.n Kush huu.N, was that KR sounded more like ARR than his father. Kehte hai.n jisako is a prime example. The second interlude includes flute odes to the interlude in tanhaa tanhaa from Rangeela. Asha sounds a little tired in aaj mai.n Kush huu.N and ye sochataa hai kyaa (kyaa kyaa time hai/mausam fine hai: someone got paid to write this crap ???) (the male vocal taan and female chorus -- Jolly Mukherjee? -- are nice though) -- frankly, any of her attempts to sound young, coquettish and playful end up being embarassing. She should just stop playback singing, release some pop albums (at least that way I won't have to buy them!) or better still, indulge in more heartfelt riyaaz so that she doesn't render embarassments like ra.ng raliyaa.N {ref: Khwahish}. Chup chup's appeal begins and ends with the opening female chorus, before never-say-die Bhosle emerges from the ashes. What was Mehboob smoking when he wrote such drivel anyways? There's an unidentified male voice (or voices? unless that's echo and reverb again) indulging in vocal histrionics and some nice south-indian percussion improvisation which although brief redeem this song a bit. {movie review on rediff} Unheard and unreviewed: Dominique's disco rap (must I even bother?)

Pinjar: Uttam Singh tunes lyrics by Gulzar, Zehra Nigah and Amirta Pritam (who also wrote the source novel). Very very earthy and rustic, and lots of Punjabi lyrics, like our first candidate shaabaa nii shaabaa, which has a turnaround echoing that in dulhan Kuubasuurat hai from Phandebaaz (Clearly, I have R D Burman on my mind!). However, US gets a chance to retune Gulzar's rewritten haath chhuuTe bhii to (last tuned by Jagjit Singh for Marasim) and gets JS to sing it again. It's an interesting different tune too, especially with its incorporation of a female taan (Preeti Uttam) and a chorus (chhuuT gaye yaar naa chhuuTii yaarii maulaa). The Wadali brothers make an appearance (their first on a Hindi film album?) along with the painful Jaspinder Narula with dard maryaa, right after US lends his voice (another first?) to tail-end the pleasant Roop Kumar Rathod-sung vatanaa ve. Uttam Singh's daughter Preeti Uttam steps up to sing charakhaa chalaatii maa.N, a song about the inevitable fate of the girl child (Gulzar revs back with some nice lyrics too). Incidentally, this is the first Bollywood movie whose music was released at the Indo-Pak border (Wagah). {links and listing courtesy: Pavan Jha, moderator of Gulzarfans and owner of Gulzaronline}. Here's the track listing (lyric credits are Gulzar, unless otherwise indicated):
1. Shaba ni shaba - Kavita Krishnamurty, Saadhna Sargam, Udit & Chorus
2. Maar udari - Jaspinder Narula, Preeti Uttam, Amar Date, Nihar S & Chorus
3. Haath chhoote bhi to rishte nahin - Jagjeet Singh, Preeti Uttam & Chorus
4. Vatna ve - Roop Kumar Rathod and Uttam Singh
5. Darda maarya - Wadali Bandhu, Jaspinder Narula and Chorus
6. Charkha chalaati Maa - Preeti Uttam and Chorus Poetry - Amrita Pritam
7. Sita ko dekhe - Suresh Wadkar and Saadhna Sargam Poetry - Zehra Nigah
8. Shabad (Hymns) - Preeti Uttam and Chorus (Traditional)
9. Waarish Shah Nu - Wadali Brothers & Preeti Uttam Poetry : Amrita Pritam