Contributed by Avinash Ramchandani
avinash@indolink.com

Unlike most A.R. Rahman albums, this one isn't a dubbed movie album. Its a bilingual movie, which means that when we see the songs in the film the actors will actually be saying the Hindi words, although the movie has already been released in Tamil and had music that was similar to the Hindi songs. This basically means that the director was making two movies at once, although essentially he was making one. But this also benefits the music. Rather than having P.K. Mishra or Mehboob doing the lyrics we got the most popular lyricist on the market today, Javed Akhtar. So, we have a mixing of music and lyrics, the hottest music director of the South and the hottest lyricist of Bollywood which for the first time have combined and made a splendid album.

As with most A.R. Rahman albums, this album has a deceiving first listen. It starts out as a mediocre album, but if one listens to the album several times, one will start to enjoy it. The first song starts off as Hema Sardesi's best yet with "Aawara Bhanwara" which is also rendered by Malaysia Vasudevan. Hema's vocals are superb, although Rahman's superb music dominates the song. "Roshan Huyi Raat" is a great beginning for newcomer Anuradha Sriram. The song is slow, although it is sung with great spirit. The music is the least enjoyable of the lot of six songs in this album.

"Door Na Ja Mujh Se" is a great song sung by S.P. Balasubrimanium and Shuba. Balasubrimanium has done a great job to make the song great. The lyrics are good, although not up to the normal Javed Akhtar standard. "Ek Bagiya Main" is another naughty song sung by Chitra, Shankar Mahadevan and Shreeni. Mahadevan does a great job in making the song lively and does best job in this song in a long time. Chitra also does a spendid job, although the part that she has is minimal.

"Strawberry Aankhen" has strange lyrics that can get on one's nerves every once in a while, but if in a lively, masti-filled mood, this is the song to listen to. K. Kay renders the song well, although Kavita Poudwal sounds like a little kid singing.

"Chanda Re" has the far best lyrics and singing of the album, although the music isn't as great as previous songs. Hariharan and Sadhna Sargam both render the song well and Sadhna shows off her superb voice with the contrast of Hariharan's deep, yet soft voice. Javed Akhtar's lyrics are the best of the album here.

This movie has had a good lift with the music already being on the song charts all over the world. Kajol is waiting for a hit after Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, and this movie may provide just that. Arvind Swamy and Prabhu Deva both have been introduced to the Hindi Cinema before, although Prabhu Deva was a big flop with Humse Hain Muqabla, Arvind Swamy swept the audience with his performance in the contraversial Bombay. Start having sapnays of Sapnay being a big hit in Mumbai as well as the rest of the world....

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