Karz (New)   Producer: Kaushal Godha Director: Harry Baweja Starring: Sunny Deol, Suneil Shetty, Shilpa Shetty, Ashutosh Rana, Sayaji Shinde, Johnny Lever Music: Sanjeev Darshan Lyrics: Sameer, Abbas Singers: Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik, Kumar Sanu, Anuradha Paudwal, Abhijeet, Adnan Sami, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Sukhwinder Singh and Hema Sardesai Audio On: T-Series    Number of Songs: 8 Album Released on: 10 November 2002 Reviewed by: Rakesh Budhu  - Rating: 5.0 / 10   Let us know what you think about this review Movie Review

Left to recycling titles, Aashna Arts´s Karz, which attempts to provide the difference with a catchy sub-line of "The Burden of Truth", lacks any novelty in its music, lyrics and from the trailers, in its film making as well. The latter may be proven wrong, but for now, a melodious score seems much influenced, regular and seems like it will appeal solely to those who like to hear the same style of songs over and over again. With that said it takes no guesses as to whose fan following the music of Karz may appeal to, but

Sanjeev-Darshan are no Nadeem-Shravan, no matter how hard they try. The entire album however shows a decent attempt at compositions of their style and thus results in a variety of decent love songs.

Decent music is a pick any day over bad music but there is nothing special in the tunes, especially nothing that will set it apart from anything beyond the ordinary.

"Sham Bhi Khoob Hai", the penultimate song for a triage, sings like an ode to eighties tunes, but more recently has that recurrent guitar from "Masoom Chehra" (Nadeem-Shravan´s Ansh). Saxophone and orchestration all follow the same trend, as does the singing by Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik and Kumar Sanu. Guessing aside, the inspiration is evident as this is the same trio that Nadeem-Shravan have used and adored for over ten years, and even so in their last two soundtracks Dil Ka Rishta and Dil Hai Tumhaara, or as inspiration evident Dhadkan´s inimitable Dil Ne Yeh Kaha Hai Dil Se. Sameer´s lyrics do rise to the occasion but in no enviable manner. Familiarity excluding, the song is entertaining. And if the Nadeem-Shravan flavor wasn´t at a high, the repetition factor (the habit of repeating the same songs on their soundtracks) has been done here as well. This song and another are repeated.

The double hero film must have a double hero love song, but it is still quite awkward picturing action stars Sunny Deol and Sunil Shetty crooning to a love song adorning a heroine. A slow, typical love song only stands out because it brings together the silky Abhijeet with the husky Kumar Sanu after a long while. Abhijeet shines in his rendition, much more than Kumar Sanu, but otherwise the commonplace song will simply serve its purpose in the film alone. "Aashiqui, Aashiqui" drives in its point by repeating the title over and over again. The song seems heavily inspired by ´Jaan Leva´ from Moksha, perhaps mainly because Kavita Krishnamurthy´s voice has been synthesized, as was the case in the former. Adnan Sami has been included to add some ´hit´ into the song but he doesn´t give the song a niche. Though the song is enjoyable it is certainly not as much as Sanjeev-Darshan had done in Harry Baweja´s Deewanee with "Jogiya" or "Qayamat". More care should have been placed in writing the lyrics, not only is the word "Aashiqui" redundant and regular (whereas this year´s hits, Ishq Kaminaa, Khallas, Nikamma and Bardaasht have all used different catchy titles), the words are very un-catchy.

"So Gayee Hai Zameen" is the second repeated song rendered once by Kumar Sanu and then by Anuradha Paudwal. The song serves as a lullaby of sorts, which in comparison to all the others, does manage to hold your attention in parts with its violin orchestration, which has complimented the other parts of the music. Sad and sweet, Kumar Sanu´s version is bound to please more as Anuradha has bored with this style of song many times before and Sanu sings with a bit more feeling.

“Mohabbat Hui Hai” is densely filled with extensive saxophone use akin to “Dekha Jo Tumko” from Kasoor. The song doesn’t create the same magic and ends up sounding like a very western influenced love song. Kavita Krishnamurthy and Kumar Sanu have done better.

Finally, “Jhoom Jhoom” is a tacky song that ends the album off. The song, like the former ‘nach’ tune chooses to simply repeat its words over and over again. Furthermore little care has been placed in trying to make Sukhwinder Singh sound good or for that matter different. Hema Sardesai is very boring and the song turns out inevitably very bad. Again, disappointing considering that Sanjeev-Darshan had created several hit dance tunes in the early phase of their dismal career.

Standards have obviously decreased in the industry as these lyrically typical albums (Sameer and Abbas), and musically familiar soundtracks are all but irregular. Karz is another trendsetter for that trend, and nothing else.