Reviewed by: Avinash Ramchandani
avinash@indolink.com

AR Rahman is a different composer in Hindi and in Tamil films. From Taal to Dil Hi Dil Main, you travel from a filmi variety that is very Bombayish-style and then to something that is interesting to absolutely brilliant, depending on the situation of the song.

At first, the "Ae Naazamen Suno Na" sounds like a re-hash of the all so famous Titanic-Celine Dion song. But, before anything too exciting starts, the music changes into a pleasurable listening. Abhijeet is great—his voice is perfect for the soothing song. Rahman picks his singers with great precision, and is successful this time. The music consists of a very average chorus that makes sounds that usually don’t make any sense, peaceful drums that keep a calm beat, and a flute that keeps the melody.

The second song, "Chand Aaya Re" is absolutely one of the best songs I have heard this year. The variation of beats and tones and drums is absolutely mesmerizing. And the constant garba beat is just splendid. On top of that, Udit’s voice drives one crazy—because it is that creative and beautiful. His ease of singing and use of style is so imaginative that the song really becomes an excitement and one wishes to rewind the song over and over again. The garba beat starts the song, another really peaceful paced beat follows with the garba sticks disappearing and the voice of the recently married Kavita Krishnamurti arriving. Kavita sounds like she is singing with deep feeling and is an additional asset to the song. After a paragraph of the peaceful beat, the garba beat is overlaid again, but this time only for one paragraph. The peaceful beat resumes thereafter, and rather than starting with Udit’s voice, it starts with Kavita’s voice. The song finally ends with a conclusion of this beat with a chorus that blends into the song really well. AR Rahman’s diverse knowledge of music really shows off in this song, especially after hearing his beautiful compositions in Taal and Dil Se last year, which were nothing like this song, but beautiful yet.

Ok, so the rest of the album isn’t much to talk about. But, the first two make up for all that. The next song is a simple love song, "Dola Dola" kind of similar to AR Rahman tunes of Humse Hain Muqabla and this movie combined. The fourth song is about some internet love… its called "Oh Maria"… all I can think is "Save me from Maria!" The fifth song is "Roja Roja"… no not from Roja, from Dil Hi Dil Main. Its sung by Hariharan again, but the song doesn’t reach the heights of the first version. Hariharan is beautiful but the song is just average.

The final song, "Sawar Gayee" is tuned to the voices of Srinivas and Udit. The beat is somewhat similar to "Chaaiya Chaaiya" at first, but that isn’t evident till the voices on top of the beat are removed, because the melody is totally different. But, then… woah… like magic the beat turns to the beat that was in the slow parts of "Chand Aaya Re." And Udit is absolutely spectacular. Then AR Rahman does some real Jaadu, he turns the beat back to the original "Chaaiya Chaaiya" style beat and mixes in a variety of stuff into it, including some slow violin.

Anyhow, overall, an average album for ARR, but very much above average for almost all other composers. ARR really shows his talent with the variety of music styles in this album and the singing creativity shown by the singers. So, why are you still reading this review? Go hear it or get it for "Chaand Aaya Re" if nothing else.