Reviewed by: Aniket Joshi
aniket@indolink.com

Zakhm (described as "A Love Story That Heals") is Pooja Bhatt's third production. Her previous two ventures offered some melodious tunes. Zakhm is more like Tamanna, a mix of a couple of love songs with a lot of emotionally depressing numbers. You may like to hear the "rona dhona" types of songs once, but you can't resist yourself from pressing the forward button on your cassette player.

"Hum Yahan" is the gem of this album. The song has two versions, a male and a female, sung by Kumar Sanu and Alka Yagnik, respectively. These are wonderful soft romantic numbers with outstanding lyrics penned by Anand Bakshi. The singing is surprisingly above average on Sanu's part but its his voice again that makes the song near-perfect instead of perfect. Alka Yagnik renders her version with ease.

"Maa Ne Kaha" has three versions, a happy one and a sad one, both by M. M. Kreem himself. The sad version is very short compared to the happy one. M. M. Kreem renders the songs nicely, but it's the depressing feeling tagged along with the songs that takes the joy away from listening to them. The third version by Chitra is more like a lullaby, Chitra just hums the tune instead of singing any lines. This is my personal favorite of the three versions.

"Gali Mein Chand" has two versions, a happy and a sad. Both are sung by Alka Yagnik. The sad one is very short and depressing, the happy one is above average. Yagnik does a good job.

"Raat Sari" sung by Alka Yagnik is a beautifully sung number. Kreem's use of the keyboard in the beginning is very effective. However Yagnik seems to be the wrong choice for this song, her high notes irritate at times.

"Padh Likh Ke" by Alka Yagnik is an okay song; nothing I can relate to. Its another one of those talking-to-her-son songs.

Zakhm is recommended for those who like songs that are charged with emotions. If you like songs that are medium or fast paced like Dil To Pagal Hai, Gupt, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, etc. I recommend you skip this album.

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