When we last heard that a soundtrack was to be “mind blowing”, it was Anu Malik referring to his supposedly best work ever, the truly disappointing Yaadein. Now, the Teezab director is back after a disappointing Shikari, and he’s describing the music for his up and coming “daringly different” film, Style, in the same manner. When I checked the music director, Sanjeev Darshan, I chuckled, recalling their recent soundtracks. On a different note, soundtracks with “different” music, as Chandra described this one’s, are usually unique to a personīs taste. Some may like it, some may not. When I think of different, I think of soundtracks like 1947, Dil Se… and even the recently released Abhay, yet most of those were mass appealing soundtracks (the fate of Abhay is yet to be seen). “Style” is a different soundtrack, not really mind blowing, and perhaps, just perhaps, may be to some likings, but it does lack mass appeal. The real question is, do we wave goodbye to Sanjeev Darshan after their last excellent soundtrack, Deewane? Let’s see.
The same can be said for Nitin Raikwar’s own composed, written and sung tunes in “Excuse Me.” Singing alongside newcomers (?) Nisha and Simmie, this track seems so situational that you can’t help but be disappointed. One hoped they would make it at least a little listen able away from the big screen. Things look better with “Mohabbat Ho Na Jaaye”, a little better that is. Sanjeev-Darshan have returned to their old style of music as evident from the opening of the song. Along with that we have a chorus that makes the song entertaining. Unfortunately, it’s not perfect. As they did with Mann, and Hamara Dil Apke Paas Hai, the musical duo seems to love to make their singers stress and stretch the end of their words (witness Kali Nagin Ke Jaisee and Kya Maine Aaj Sunaa). Abhijeet stretching Mohabbat to Mohabaaaat is taxing on the ears. When Hema Sardesai does it, it sounds a little more ear friendly. This takes away from the tune, but hey, the music is good. Lyrics aren’t amazing from Abbas here. They (the lyrics that is) get worst with Mr. and Miss. Dil (these song titles never cease to amaze me!) The pace is picked up here, and it works. K.K. is in his league with the fast and “jumpy” style of singing and he sounds good. Even the musical background is pleasing, and Sardesai does an apt job. If only the lyrics worked, then this would be a winner. Unfortunately they don’t (and the English music intervals don’t either.) The dance numbers continue with “Jaan Meri Jaan Hai Tu”, sung by Mohini and Sapna Mukherji. It’s always good to have a wide variety of singers in a soundtrack. Malik has learned this and has been implementing it with his up and coming soundtracks, and A.R. Rahman is the one who proved it with his immensely diverse soundtracks. Sanjeev Darshan too, have been pretty diverse in their singers since they began, but as of late are choosing the wrong singers! These two singers take a good beat and make this song, “typical dance number” material. You know, the stuff you just watch in the movie. So sad it is, because the beat is nice. The second rendition of Mohabbat Ho Na Jaaye is sung by Udit Narayan (thank god for small miracles) and Sunidhi Chauhan. Thankfully, Udit handles the stretching of “Mohabbat” and “Qayamat” much better than Abhijeet, but it is still stretched. Sunidhi sounds like her usual apt self. The second rendition proves that these two songs are the best of the soundtrack. Nitin Raikwar’s remixes of his two tracks, Style Mein Rehna Ka and Excuse Me are just that, remixes. Nothing much to say (except that the latter has an eerie opening, and sounds better than the original version!) His composing skills are decent, nothing award worthy, his singing skills are up to par with Anu Malik’s, Salman Khan’s and Shah Rukh Khan’s (I’m sure that says enough). His lyrical abilities are mediocre in this soundtrack, and the whole soundtrack overall just has mediocre to poor lyrics (courtesy of 3 lyricists too!) Ending off the soundtrack is a theme piece, something that had me somewhat excited. Being an avid listener of musical pieces I wondered what Sanjeev Darshan would whip out. Thankfully, it isn’t a disappointment, but it’s really nothing much. The piano based turn violin tune is short and for the most part an instrumental piece to the previous songs. Mind Blowing, it is not. It’s a run of the mill fare with a majority of youthful situation songs. Style’s soundtrack is probably not going to be a disappointment as many aren’t truly aware of the film (whose release is right around the corner), but is a disappointment coming from this once talented duo. The film has a lot of work ahead of it, because its “different” music will probably not do much for it. So, do we wave goodbye to Sanjeev Darshan? Not yet. A few of the songs are enjoyable here. The musical backdrops show a dramatic change from what S-D have given us with their recent soundtracks, if they keep it up, then they will be back in form. For now, we wait. |
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Our opener, “Yeh Hai Style” suffers from poor lyrics. Sure the title of the film is English; hence we should leave the title section of the soundtrack to a theme piece, not a song with lyrics repeating, “this is style.” What’s worst is that there is another song with the title of the film
in it. Both Yeh Hai Style and “Style Mein Rehna Ka” are attempts at something upbeat, but don’t work.
Yeh Hai Style has a “pop” style singing a la K.K. and
Abhijeet (and it doesn’t work that much for the latter), and has a reggae interval that seems out of place for a film soundtrack. Even the musical clippings that are loudly interwoven throughout the tracks don’t do much.
Sonu Nigam and Vinod Rathod’s vocals in Style Mein Rehna Ka are absolutely nothing new and at the same time nothing really good either. You can, however, get a few laughs out of the track with the renditions of “IshStyle!!!” And “Cool, Cool, Cool It Baby, This is My Style…”