out of

Producer: Allu Arvind
Director: David Dhawan
Music: Aadesh Shrivastava
Lyrics: Sameer

Reviewed by: Akhlaq Hussain
akhlaq@indolink.com

GOVINDA and DAVID DHAWAN are back again in the new century delivering another comedy caper, KUNWARA. This time they have ditched KARISMA and ANU MALIK for the desperately-seeking-a-hit URMILA MATONDKAR and percussionist-turn-music director AADESH SHRIVASTAV. Will it work? From the music one might think so.

The album starts off with the PROMO number NA HIRA NO MOTI sung very well by SONU NIGAM and HEMA SARDESAI. Sonu adds that extra liveliness needed for a ChiChi song and Hema has also done an adequete job. While the lyrics are no great shakes, the beat is well strong enough to keep your toes tapping.

Next we have the 90's PLAYBACK KING-QUEEN KUMAR SANU and ALKA YAGNIK singing to YEH LADKI JAWAAN, a routine DD film song which just describes that the hero and heroine have matured enough to steal people's hearts. A passable number but not anything in the league of the gems Sanu and Yagnik have sung together.

URMILA RE URMILA follows with SONU NIGAM and ALKA YAGNIK. A typical-teaser number where the hero vies for the heroine's attention. Nothing new here, except the heroines real name is used. You might want to even hit forward for this one.

SONU NIGAM and ALKA YAGNIK give you another duet in MERI CHAMAK CHALO which is a little more livelier but with the same premise as the previous song. Can a ChiChi-DD film have enough teaser songs? Obviously Aadesh Shrivastav thought not.

The obligatory WEDDING song MEHDNI LAGAKE with KUMAR SANU and ALKA YAGNIK is next. The singing duo do a great job of expressing the hero and heroine's plight in trying not to stay "kunwaara". While the song is no "Saajanji Ghar Aaye" or "Mehndi Lagake Rakhna" for a DD film it's good.

JAB LADKA HO KUNWARA fills the required PUNJABI song of the film. SONU NIGAM and ALKA YAGNIK do a great job but one wonders why didn't Shrivastav take the PUNJABAN QUEEN JASPINDER NARULA herself? The song suits her to the tee, perhaps the music director felt Jaspinder's husky voice doesn't suit URMILA or something, none the less it comes as a disappointment since one expects Narula in these kinds of songs.

A situational song SUN MERE SASURE MAIN with SONU(yet again) and VINOD RATHOD follows. Unless you're a great Sonu or Rathod fan, the forward button will come to use on your player for the first or second time while listening to this album. The song basically has the hero trying to "patao" his future Sasur.

The album ends with the OFFICIAL title song MAIN KUNWARA AA GAYA with who else but SONU NIGAM. Sonu does a great job and suits Govinda greatly, it's easy to say that the song will be the introduction of GOVINDA in the film.

All in all KUNWARA is a must-buy if you're a Govinda or Sonu Nigam fan. If not, well there are plenty of ANU MALIK albums out there for you guys. The album is a few notches above Shrivistav's other Govinda album JORU KA GHULAM. As for the long-in-the-making film, it has Urmila trying to catch a hit again with ChiChi after their disastrous first attempt in HUM TUM PE MARTE HAIN. The usual Dhawan props like KADAR KHAN, JOHNNY LEVER, and OM PURI are there in the film which incidentally is a remake of a CHIRANJEEVI flick. Everyone associated with the film need a hit like fish need water, since the DD-ChiChi duo has only failed twice out of twelve attempts, the odds are definitely in their favor.