Contributed by Mandeep Bahra
mandeep@indolink.com

Sameer has risen above his recent puerile 'poetry' and come up with some half-way decent lyrics for this Yash Chopra presentation. Music director, Aadesh Shrivastava seems to have been inspired by brothers-in-law Jatin-Lalit, as the entire album is reminiscent of their style.

The interesting thing about this soundtrack is that all the songs are sung by newcomers from what the cassette jacket describes as, "the popular television programme- Meri Awaaz Sun" (never heard of it!). The lack of big name singers may put people off, which is unfortunate because the newcomers impress and there isn't an off-key note to be heard on the entire album. 'Jadoo Hai Yeh' is a simply 'magic' duet sung by Manohar Shetty and Arpana Shukla. Shetty sounds like a cross between Amit Kumar and S.P.Balasubrahmaniam, while Arpana sounds similar to Sadhana Sargam. The duet is rather mellow and definitely has the 'Yash Chopra' influence. 'Aap Se Pyar Hai' is a sweet melodic duet by Manohar Shetty and Pritha Mazumdar, who sounds like Chitra. Before things get too 'mushy' along comes 'Jhoom Jhoom Chuk Chuk'. Newcomer Shivdutt Singh handles the R.D.Burmanesque number impressively and does an encore in the duet version with Arpana Shukla. The title track, 'Humko Ishq Ne Mara' resembles 'Yahan Ke Hum Sikandar' from Jatin-Lalit's JO JEETA WOHI SIKANDAR, and appears in two versions. One is a duet by Manohar shetty and Pritha Mazumdar and the other is a group song by no less than seven(!) singers (Pritha Mazumdar, Manohar Shetty, Amruta Samant, Chintamani Sohni, Medha Paranjpe, Chandrabushan and Ajeya Trivedi). Aadesh Shrivastava has looked back to the '60's for inspiration in 'Tara Rara Rum' sung by Subrajit Dutta and Pritha Mazumdar. Subrajit sounds similar to Vinod Rathod and handles the tough notes skillfully. 'That Was Yesterday' by Subrajit Dutta and Arpana Shukla rounds off the album. This song is okay but the singers sound very uneasy singing in English and as a result the song loses most of it's appeal.

Although I have made comparisons to established singers, the similarities are very subtle and so all the newcomers on this album have the potential to create their own identity in the realm of playback singing.

This soundtrack is definitely worth a listen, but I fear that it may go un-noticed among the recent big banner music releases like YESS BOSS, GUPT, DEEWANA MASTANA, AUR PYAR HO GAYA, etc.

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