Main Hoon Na   Producer: Gauri Khan Director: Farah Khan Starring: Shahrukh Khan, Suneil Shetty, Sushmita Sen, Zayed Khan, Amrita Rao, Kirron Kher, Boman Irani, Bindu, Satish Shah, Special Appearances by Naseeruddin Shah, Kabir Bedi & Tabu (blink, and you miss her) Music: Anu Malik Lyrics: Javed Akhtar Singers: Abhijeet, Sonu Nigam, Alka Yagnik, Shreya Ghoshal, Vasundhara Das, K.K., Anu Malik, Sunidhi Chauhan, Ranjit Barot, Aftab Sabri, Hashim Sabri Audio On: T-Series    Number of Songs: 8 Album Released on: 27 February 2004 Reviewed by: Rakesh Budhu  - Rating: 7.0 / 10   Let us know what you think about this review Movie Review

The title track, “Main Hoon Na” reminds us a bit of “Hum To Deewane Hue Yaar” from Baadshah. Nevertheless, the song is enjoyable and refreshing without being groundbreaking. Sonu Nigam is a bit soothing and Shreya Ghoshal compliments him well.

The qawaali, “Tumse Milke Dilka Jo Haal”, is boringly drawn out with a peppy beat and a few interludes that may entertain somewhat, but the lyrics as uninteresting as they are don’t help in making this song a repeat. Sonu Nigam sounds disinterested and the vocalists that support him (Aftab Sabri, Hashim Sabri) aren’t enticing either. It’s awkward that Shah Rukh said this was his favorite song on the soundtrack being that it is so boring, putting it nicely.

The best singer for Shah Rukh, opinionatedly, is Abhijeet. The singer with the silken voice matches Shah Rukh very well and that stands out in “Tumhe Jo Maine Dekha”. The song is a good Anu Malik number, which has the opportunity to storm the charts, thanks to a good composition and Abhijeet’s wonderful vocals. The numero uno female singer right now, Shreya Ghoshal compliments Abhijeet perfectly once again showing that she can do more than soft love songs. With a Latin influence that is not rare for Anu, making it work is what makes the song decent and a change in vocalists doesn´t hurt either.

Abhijeet also features in the sad version of “Main Hoon Na”. The version is interestingly enough almost as lengthy as the original version and with that, Abhijeet’s slower version also tops it a bit as well. A remix of the title track courtesy of Ranjeet Barot also ends off the album. The song seems like a poor attempt at infiltrating west and east but is quite unappealing.

With a four protagonist main center, the song featuring all of them is presumably “Gori Gori”, which features singers Anu Malik, Shreya Ghoshal, K.K. and Sunidhi Chauhan. A typical Anu Malik tapori like number, which is to resonate “fun”, you’d shudder when you saw Malik himself was singing it after a while. In all fairness to Malik, he doesn’t shriek as much and the song is even a little enjoyable even though it too is bland at parts sounding just average. An almost situational number bringing a typical beat to its above average renditions; it follows the previous “Greece” bo-op sock hop tunes of the Western culture.

For the real refresher, there is “Chale Jaise Hawein” which features the astounding vocals of Vasundhara Das complimenting K.K. An upbeat tune, the song sounds like a motivational number and succeeds in getting our feet tapping a little bit.

Kay Kay and Alka Yagnik dish it up in the upbeat "Yeh Fizaen" (this album is certainly not a highlight of Javed Akhtar´s superlative poetry). Again, the song is breezily easy on the ears and a bit enjoyable as well which all works in its favor. This song too sounds a bit familiar to some previous tunes, including some of Malik´s from the 90´s. Kay Kay and Alka are soft in their renditions. 

A few of the songs seem like an attempt to bring in Western music, rap and all, into the mix of orchestrations. I suppose this is all coming after "Pretty Woman" from Kal Ho Naa Ho. The outcome doesn´t always work but in Main Hoon Na it doesn´t do as bad. The remixed version of the title track done by Ranjeet Barot is a rap version of the original and is essentially a pass. Remixes like "Bardaasht" or "Kambakth Ishq" come to mind as better works than this one.

While there is nothing spectacular or extremely different about the music for Farah Khan´s Main Hoon Na and it certainly doesn´t stand out as say Saaya, the music is not bad and that for once is good.