Reviewed by: Aniket Joshi
aniket@indolink.com

Dillagi is Dharmendra’s next production after Barsaat (1995), in which his beta Bobby Deol made his debut as an 'actor'. In Dillagi, his older beta Sunny Deol, makes his debut as a director. Sunny wanted an 'international look' for Dillagi (formerly titled London) so he roped in four music directors. The songs don’t really give that feeling. They sound much like any other song that one would find in a Hindi film. I expected the soundtrack of Dillagi to be a masterpiece, taking into consideration there are four music directors. Well, my expectations are short lived. Dillagi isn’t a masterpiece. However, there are a couple of songs which are addictive and will stay in my head for a long time to come.

The album opener – “Dillagi” will be stuck in your head after the first listen. What’s amazing about the song is that there are TEN singers. Udit Narayan, Abhijeet, Alka Yagnik, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Sukhwinder Singh, Shankar Mahadevan, Sonu Nigam, Jaspinder Nirula, Mahalakshmi and Shaan make up the list. Each one has a few lines to sing and they all do justice to their little share. The song is very catchy, courtesy of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.

Jatin-Lalit’s best composition is “Yeh Zameen Hai” sung by Roopkumar Rathod. There’s an emotional feel tagged along with the song due to the beautiful lyrics which makes the song as good as it is. Roopkumar Rathod’s rendition is excellent; he’s singing really well these days. After “Khamosh Raat” from Thakshak, this may be another addition to his “hit list.”

“Dhoom Dhoom Luck Luck” is a disappointment thanks to Sukhwinder Singh who composes the song. The number could’ve been good, had not Mr. Singh change the melody so many times. There is a bright spot in this song however, in the form of Mahendra Kapoor. Yes, the great singer of yester years has a couple of lines to sing here and does justice to them. Other singers include Sukhwinder Singh, Shankar Mahadevan, Mohini Brahmbhatt.

“Koi Nahin Aisa” is sung by Amit Kumar and Alka Yagnik. The chorus, the beats, and the strings remind of an 80’s song English song, but I can’t figure out which one. Nonetheless, this one is well sung to say the least.

“Kya Yeh Sach Hai” has an enigmatic/deep forest feel which makes it a winner. Shankar Mahadevan and Mahalakshmi are the singers. “Raahon Mein Chhayee” sung by Shankar Mahadevan, Alka Yagnik, and Udit Narayan is a listenable number. The song can be described as a “feel good” number.

“Haan Haan Mujhe Pyar Hai” is sung by Abhijeet. It’s somewhat short compared to the length of an ordinary Hindi film song. Nonetheless it’s listenable for Abhijeet, who shines in it.

Kumar Sanu sings “Main Kya Karoon”, his only song in this album. To put it simply, he just tears it to pieces. He sounds like a complete hijra due to his nasal talents. If J-L had picked another singer, the song would’ve been listenable.

“Sangeet” is a punjabi-ish wedding song rendered by Jaspinder Nirula and Dilraj Kaur. Not much to say about this one.

“Tanhai” is rendered by the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. It’s a slow, sad song sung nicely by the great Ustad. The beats are pretty good, thanks to Anand-Milind. I doubt if they actually composed this song, since Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan usually composes his own tunes and lets other musicians
arrange the music.

The only complaint is, why are only Jatin-Lalit given the credit for music on the front cover? All four of the music directors deserve the credit. Maybe Venus is just trying to sell more cassettes/CDs with J-L’s name since the other three are not doing so well or are hardly known to people. Dillagi is a worthy buy for a few songs. I still wonder how the title song will be picturised since there are ten singers. Maybe Sunny will ask some of our philmy sitares to make a special appearance and lip sing a few lines?