Earlier films directed by Indra Kumar had memorable music. Unfortunately, probably for the first time, his latest film Aashiq doesn’t have “good” music. There are a couple of catchy songs that will linger in your head, but there aren’t any earth-shattering numbers here. Sanjeev-Darshan made their debut with Indra Kumar’s last film, Mann. The songs of Mann were very good. However, in comparison to Mann, Aashiq doesn’t belong in the same league. Another factor that goes against the quality of the album are the lyrics. The songs contain the same old wordings such as “raat ko sona mushkil ho gaya hai” or “ek pal ki judaai ab sahi nahin jaati” or something to that effect, we’ve heard that stuff so many times before. Sameer should choose better words. Poets like Gulzar, Javed Akhtar, and even Anand Bakshi always offer something new and unheard in their songs. However, Sameer has gotten too repetitive during the last few years.

The album begins with the pleasant “Teri Aankhon Mein Mujhe” sung by Alka Yagnik and Udit Narayan. The composition is nice, and the singers just breeze through this song, because they’ve probably sung hundreds of these types of songs before.

“O Mere Dholna” sung by Anuradha Paudwal and Udit Narayan is a nice tune again. This song, in my opinion, is slightly better than the previous one, and may be the best song of the album.

Next we have the slow “Aashiq Mujhe Aashiq” sung by Roopkumar Rathod and Alka Yagnik. Though Roopkumar Rathod’s rendition is nearly flawless, I cannot help but think what this song would’ve sounded like had Sonu Nigam sung it? Alka Yagnik breezes through this one also, the tune is soft, which provides perfect range for her voice.

Next comes the rip-off song. I mean “Gori Tera Nakhara” sung by Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik. The beats are taken directly from Hindustani’s “Latka” composed by A. R. Rahman. If Sanjeev-Darshan want to stay in the industry for a long time to come, they better stop coming up with songs like this one.

“Tum Kya Jaano” which is again sung by Alka Yagnik and Udit Narayan, is a pleasant song. Not mindblowing, but it will hold your interest and you probably won’t have to press the “next” button.

“Gore Gore Gaal Mere” and “Charche Hain Humare” are solos by Alka Yagnik and Udit Narayan respectively. Both sound like songs that were left out of a soundtrack from a Mithun flick.

Lastly we have “Chhed Do” sung by Udit Narayan. Again, this song is passable, but nothing that you’ll remember say, a couple of years from now. Udit Narayan has sung tons of these types of songs, so nothing challenging for him here.

Simply put, Aashiq is a BIG disappointment. Indra Kumar is known to have a good ear for music, wonder what he was thinking when he “okayed” these tunes? Lets hope his next film, “Rishta” offers some better quality of music than the songs of Aashiq. I hope the film is good, but my hopes aren’t too high considering Bobby Deol and Karisma Kapoor’s last film was the trash called Hum To Mohabbat Karega.