notes on the songs of Game

(buried in a lot of information about Bapi-Tutul and Sandeep Nath)

Lyricist Sandeep Nath and the brothers Bhattacharya Bapi-Tutul started off together with din hai na ye raat in Bhoot, Paisa Vasool (for which Nath reportedly signed on before Bhoot) and then Ek Hasina Thi, where Bapi-Tutul managed a coup with Pt. Jasraj lending his voice for the cue in puuryaa dhaanashrii over the opening credits. The RGV camp that marked Bapi-Tutul's foray into Bollywood also boasted other collaborations on Sarkar and si.nduurii aasmaan in James.

Sandeep Nath also managed to collaborate with Shameer Tandon, Madhur Bhandarkar's music director of choice, on Page 3 and Corporate. He even collaborated with Robbing Hood Pritam on Agnipankh (where Pritam converted Abrar Ul Haq's bhiigaa-bhiigaa-sa into a patriotic chant a year before he filched it more brazenly in Chocolate).

The composer duo scored with Khosla ka Ghosla last year and reunited with their songwriting partner on a couple of films that would probably interest B-mongers: Hot Money (whose distinction, despite delivering the goods, was of being directed by Rakesh Sawant, and sporting an item song featuring his sister Rakhi "Item" Sawant) and Game (featuring Mona Chopra, who figures in the eagerly-awaited-and-still-unseen Naughty Boy that would mark the return of Rahul Roy).

All this now brings us to Game, which earns some witless cribs from the Capitulating Critic:

With absolutely nil hopes from the album due to the genre of the film and other credentials, one plays on the album with much apprehension. In the end it turns out that it was good to be apprehensive in the first place itself since Game indeed doesn't have much to offer.

We must remind you that the extract above came from a music review.

All this seems to be unfairly building up to the song of the post, chhuaa mere dil ko, which owes a big debt to Mark Knopfler. When Vishal-Shekhar reinvented themselves with the lounge/club shower of Musafir, they gave us tez dhaar, which blended elements from Knopfler and other famous axemen. But Bapi-Tutul's effort leaves us without doubt. When you first hear that short turnaround lick from Sultans of Swing, you're inclined to credit the guitarist with a quote. But at the 3 minute mark, a prominent riff inundates the song; it's a riff that marginally differs from the riff that swells up in On Every Street. This doesn't take away the merits of good arrangements and rendition from the song, although one wonders if a now older Shaan is positioning himself as the new Kumar Sanu. I could have sworn I was hearing Sanu with a clear nose when the voice broke in.

bhiige nainaa gives KK another nice melody to swing his voice about; I haven't come to terms with Deepshikha Sharma's voice on the female version of the song. Shreya Ghoshal ruins the duet version of chhuaa mere dil ko by deciding to phone in her patent-pending screeching girl child impression. Sunidhi Chauhan faithfully renders yet another song in her item kitty, maregaa maregaa bewafaa maregaa. Listen carefully and you'll hear part of the sample that figured prominently in A R Rahman's hammaa from Bombay.

Time to dig out Hot Money and listen to daulat hai nashaa and dhakkam dhakaa.