It incontestably takes a lot of work to make a fairly listenable soundtrack out of rehashed, drawn out and frankly poor lyrics. At least, Anu Malik has done that with his latest bequest after a short but hopefully meaningful break. This year certainly hasn’t treated the talented composer well and that was emphasized with the soundtracks releasing very shortly after each other. Khushi does serve to bring back Malik into the race; mainly for the simple fact that it shows that Mr. Malik still has a very vast range of variety in his musical bank.

The soundtrack opens with the peppy “Hai Re” and for once or twice you might be saying the same yourself. Hema Sardesai has managed to continuously resurrect herself when you think she’s gone. After making a very limited appearance in Koi Mere Dil Se Pooche at the beginning of this year, she returns with Khushi and the recently released Karz. Her voice is still as fresh as when she started and she does justice to the song. Kay Kay, her accomplice, is in his pop mode and sings well. The music varies from the likes of “Asoka” and is then interspersed by some sassy guitar use. The song is a great start to the soundtrack as its music is experimental, catchy and workable. A number of instruments have been used to create an ear friendly complementation, especially the flute.

The thrilling theme piece shown in the trailors starts off “Tere Bina” alongside a sensuous chorus (that sounds like Sunidhi Chauhan), that compliments Shaan and Alka Yagnik. The upbeat (a term that can pretty much describe the entire soundtrack) music covers a wide range of orchestration and changes pace to very slow for the main intervals. It is overall unfortunate that this change occurs since the lyrics are not what we are looking forward to here. However shortly after, we are entreated to music that is bound to remain on our lips for very long. The tune is swift, pacy and enthralling. Though the lyrics are sadly those that are repeated, the song exemplifies composing a song, which changes paces to describe moods without as much as experimenting that one would expect.

“Jiya Maine Jiya” may be another love song but the music proposes to propel it to a status much farther. In an industry where love stories are as frequent as is in ours, songs like these can show that the mandatory love songs can have a bit of freshness here and there. Udit Narayan sings with great feeling and manages to pull the rug from Alka Yagnik in this situation. The music is catchy and though the song is not spectacular there are elements of surprise representing music similar to the likes of Viju Shah.

Karsan Sargathiya seems to have become a permanent in Anu Malik’s soundtracks. He provides a somewhat folksy start to the title track “Aaye Re Aaye Re Khushi”. Sunidhi Chauhan sings as she has for some of her best Malik hits, “Mere Zindagi Mein”, “Mehboob Mere” etc., and does it well. Her voice is also a match for the female lead, Kareena Kapoor. Though the verses carry resemblance to those tunes above, the music speaks for itself. The traditional pieces especially those where the dholak kicks in, are enticing as is the title line. Though carried familiar, and with poor regular lyrics (nothing is truly new about the words barring the line “aaye re aaye re khushi...”).

With a six-song soundtrack and already up to the fifth song, one would have probably been highly hopeful that Sameer has refrained from his mandatory English lyrics. That we are not privy to as “Good Morning India”; a predominantly English song occupies the fifth slot of the CD. The song’s music is familiar to “You Are My Sonia” and “Deewana Hai Dekho” from Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. Still, a bit of freshness and fast drum use has been interlarded to provide a difference. In that sense, it serves it purpose, and it is still a wonder why Sonu Nigam sings all of these semi-Hindi songs, perhaps its because he does a good job.

The final song is “Aaja Piya”, a song tailor made for both Kareena Kapoor and Sunidhi Chauhan. Though the song has been toned to deep and low altos, especially for Sunidhi who is made to sound a little sexy (taking the ah-ah-aah-ah portions from “Aa Tayar Hoja” from Asoka), the song is worthy of a listen. The jhankar pattern has been used effectively to lace the music. The song also resembles "Piya Piya" and "Maine Koee Jaadu", two of Malik´s previous hit numbers sung by the Pinky-Preeti duo. Sunidhi has a few years on that duo thus does a better job than the usual screechy duo.

Sameer´s lyrics are completely re-used from all of Bollywood´s previous works. That is probably a repetitive statement on our parts but hopefully producers, directors (or perhaps he himself) will get the point and try something different.

With the best song being “Tere Bina” thanks to the infectious dance music, Khushi proves to be a prime case in point. Sure, we all love those nine or eleven song soundtracks because we feel that we are getting more for our money. But, nine times out of ten, large portions of those songs are poor, rehashed and not worth more than two listens. For that, a six soundtrack with fairly decent music is a much better investment! With only six songs, there is not room for major disappointments and fumbling up with compositions. Thanks to that, Khushi is definitely one of Anu Malik’s better offerings this year and is upbeat, perky and refreshing to listen to.