Reviewed by Mukul Deshpande
mukul@indolink.com

I like it - I mean the title.

Now - when was the last time I had to take trouble to know the meaning of a Hindi film title? Let's see - "Daag -- The Fire" was a little hard to decipher. (I still haven't figured that out.) But seriously speaking - I actually had to ask someone what "sarfarosh" means. And it means "rebel".

To the album -

The opener opens with the chorus singing a familiar tune - that of "Eeena meena deeka". Which is rather strange considering what follows. Anyways, "Jo haal dil ka" is a GOOOOOOOD song rendered by Alka Yagnik and Kumar Sanu. It is not your typical Jatin-Lalit album opener though. This one's got a touch of rock - we get to hear vibrating electric guitar strings. And I have to say this - Sonali looks sizzling hot in the video. (Yup, critics too have hormones.)

"Hoshwalon ko khabar kya" is a nice ghazal sung by no less than Jagjit Singh. I feel stupid when I say this - Jagjitji sings this song very well. The soulful lyrics by Nida Fazli deserve a special mention. The song must be picturised on Naseeruddin Shah, who plays a ghazal singer in this film.

An uncredited Sonali starts off the next song. And Aamir and Alka (yes, it's them again!) take off from there. Don't worry - out of the three, only Alka sings. Aamir chips in by saying a few words here and there. I can see it - a romantic Sonali is trying to make things happen with an unromantic Aamir, and she succeeds at the end of the song. Musically speaking, this great number called "Is deewane ladke ko" is streets ahead of "Aati kya khandala", and so it should do at least half as well as "Khandala" did.

Alka sings the obligatory 'shaadi' or 'pre-shaadi' song in "Meri raaton ki neendein uda de". The song has some good beats and should do well if picturised and choreographed well. I didn't want to sound repetitive, so I'm saying this only now - Alka is wow in all the three songs she sings, especially the first two ones.

The soft piano at the beginning of the next song is the only thing soft about the song. "Yeh jawani hadh kar de" actually sounds violent thanks to some very loud beats. Even Kavita - who seems to have disappeared lately (has this got to do with Alka's overwhelming success in the recent past?) - is a little shrill.

After two songs that are just a little above average, we have a gem. Jatin-Lalit infuse melody into qawwali for the theme song of Sarfarosh. Roopkumar Rathod and Sonu Nigam do a great job at singing "Zindagi maut na ban jaye", a song which describes the disturbing state of our country. Sonu, in particular, is awesome. The more I listen to him, the more I like him.

The best thing about this score is the variety. We have a qawwali, some rock, a ghazal, and - of course - a lot of melody. Albums like Sarfarosh make sure Jatin-Lalit don't get into a rut.

I like it - I mean the album.