Reviewed by: Mandeep Bahra
mandeep@indolink.com

GANG has been dogged with problems from the start: the death of it's music director (R.D.Burman) and then the subsequent death of director, Mazhar Khan, were just two tragedies contributing to GANG's delay. As a result, a film that was scheduled for an early '90's release is finally seeing the light of day in 2000.

Fortunately, R.D.Burman was able to compose and record one song for the film before his untimely demise in 1994. And who better to sing it than Asha Bhosle! Asha always gave that little bit extra to her husband's compositions and the same is true in "Chhod Ke Na Jaana". R.D. has once again used his trademark blend of modern jazz and Latin rhythms with plenty of trumpets and percussion. Asha sings as if she were singing for a young Helen in this enjoyable cabaret number.

Not to be outdone, Anu Malik comes up with an equally inspired dance number in "Meri Payal Bole". One might expect a sweet, sobre love song from the title, but this dance number is as heavy as they come. Plenty of bass and drums adorn the catchy melody which you're bound to be humming in no time. I must admit, I'm not much of an Alka Yagnik fan, but every so often she surprises me. Alka adapts brilliantly to the style of this song and she is given able support by Sunidhi Chauhan and Anu Malik, who provide backing vocals.

"Ye Karo Ye Nahin" conveys the Gang's low opinion of 'authority' with lines like, "Main jo hoon, main woh hoon...." and "Yeh meri zindagi, jaise chaahun jeeyoon...". The Gang here are Hariharan, Abhijeet, Roop Kumar Rathod, Jolly Mukherjee and Anu Malik. Anu seems to have been inspired by Sandeep Chowta as the music sounds suspiciously similar to "Na Govinda..." from MAST.

"Dil Hai Baichain Aaja" is a very 'dramatic' (for want of a better word) love song. In fact, it can probably be described as the love song equivalent of a Greek tragedy. Overtly orchestral interludes and loud, high pitched singing from Kumar Sanu and Sadhana Sargam do nothing to disguise the plaigarised tune!

The next track is cute for about three seconds but then gets plain irritating. The entire song consists of Alka and Anu asking each other dumb questions like, "Kyon Hum Tum Miley?" "Kyon gul hai khile?" "Kyon maheki fizaa?" "Kyon baheki hawa?" .....And so on, and so on. What makes it worse is that there are no 'answers' in the whole song. Perhaps that's the point; I guess Javed Akhtar is being way too cerebral. Maybe it'll make more sense in the film.

"Aaj Tu Mangley, Jo Tera Dil Kahe, Main doon tujhko tu jo mange, jaan bhi kya hai tere aage....". This song reassembles the Gang minus Anu Malik, in another dramatically orchestrated number. There are no clues in the song as to who they are singing this to, but the whole 'your-wish-is-my-command' attitude is in total contrast to "Yeh Karo Yeh Nahin".

GANG looks like an interesting film and probably won't be relying on it's music for it's success. Nevertheless, GANG's music is definitely worth purchasing for Alka Yagnik's brilliant "Meri Payal Bole" and of course, the last ever R.D.-Asha combo, "Chhod Ke Na Jaana".