Do not expect much from Maine Dil Tujhko Diya, Sohail Khan’s (brother of Salman and Arbaaz and producer of some of their worst films), debut film as a hero. The T-Series soundtrack is just another, T-Series soundtrack. With typical music from their music bank, Daboo Malik’s music bank (not sure if he even has one of those this early on in his mediocre music career), the soundtrack is just another soundtrack with a number or two for us to listen to.

Of the numbers that are decent, there is the opener, “Thoda Sa Pyaar Hua Hai”, which opens with a familiar guitar tune and Alka Yagnik. The latter is the reason why we can listen to the song, which develops into a lovely romance number. The musical base intertwines the flute, regular orchestration and a slow workable backdrop, which does well to support good singing from Udit Narayan and Alka. The lyrics by Faaiz Anwar are overall typical romance lines, but the title line does stand out. Alka and Udit beautifully end off the tune a ghazal styled manner, which is very pleasing. This is a great way to open the soundtrack.

Salim Bijnori's lyrics in Kuchh Bhi Nahin Kuchh Nahin are also romantically sweet, speaking about the life without each other’s true love. They enhance Udit Narayan’s singing with an overall typical musical use of the dholak, the song opens up intriguingly only to turn out normal and chances are it will get too slow to catch one’s attention right away. The song is also very reminiscent, with the chorus and piano use, of Anu Malik’s “Hai Mere Dil” and “Hare Dil” from Josh.

Sonu Nigam doesn’t sound good in the title track, “Maine Dil Tujhko Diya”. Nigam seems to be trying to acquire heights unreachable (vocally anyways). The song is a swift number with a fast beat that we’ve heard already, that too with Sonu Nigam singing. To save the song from becoming a complete disappointment Malik throws in some interesting Latin drums, something we’ve heard him use briefly previously. Sunidhi is the best part of the dull song. Jalees Rashid’s lyrics are typical stuff here.

In the tradition of sad songs comes “Thoda Sa Pyaar”, the sad version. Sung by sad versions king, Sonu Nigam. Nothing much doing there. One is curious why Praveen Bhardwaj has written the lyrics for this sad version when it was Faaiz Anwar who wrote the first version.

On the other hand, in the tradition of stupid song titles comes “Shaana Na”, which carries another tradition with it, too many singers in a stupid track. Salim Bijnori goes from normal to bad in terms of lyrics here. Abhijeet, Alka Yagnik, Jordy, Ayub, Surjit, Daboo Malik all contribute to this boring situational track. Most of the new singers are refrained to the chorus, which doesn’t allow us to distinguish whether they can actually sing, or not. This may be a good thing, especially for composer Malik who has chosen to follow in his brother’s footstep in singing as well. None of the singers seem interested in the tune either.

Gufi Paintal makes a bad contribution into lyric writing with lines like “shake your body” in the Punjabi number “Sona Sona”. The song itself is a dance number, which again fails to hold our attention for long barring the lines “Mere Yaar Ka… Oh Rabba Mere…” These are after all, redundant Sonu numbers. Alka comes in some time later and doesn’t do anything to make the song survive. The song has also been tag lined “The Rhythm of Love”, mainly because there is a lengthy instrumental at the end of the song.

“Dil Churane Lagi” is Praveen Bhardwaj’s second lyrical contribution to the soundtrack. The song has the typical T-Series stamp on it, with over use of the jhankar and rehashing of many old tunes, including Khoye Khoye Din Hain (which Malik composed for in Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam). There is a lot of Sadak, Aashiqui etc and overall heavy influence from Nadeem-Shravan. The song is also another version of “Maine Dil Tujhko Diya”. While the song is redundant etc., there is also not a doubt that the song will pick up because the style of song is popular.

“Aaya Ve Saajan”, a semi-shaadi semi-Punjabi number also turns out to be another regular tune. Most of these wedding songs don’t find life outside of the cinema halls. Nice it is, but there aren’t high chances that you would hit the repeat button on this. Sunidhi and Alka sing nice enough.

Daboo Malik, Nayan, Pankaj, Jordy end the soundtrack with a theme number titled “Ik Deewana”. The song gives us a good idea of how bad the vocals of these singers are.

I doubt anyone was expecting a musical bouquet with Maine Dil Tujhko Diya. But, even purchasing it with low expectations will have you feeling like you wasted your money. Daboo Malik has not had a chance to shine ever since his musical debut in Yeh Zindagi Ka Safar. The fact is, he remained as original as he could in that soundtrack and shone the most there. The tunes for these remain very similar to the multi-composers songs in Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam, Pyaasa and Tumko Na Bhool Paayenge. While those had too many composers spoiling the broth, Daboo Malik shows in Maine Dil Tujhko Diya that bad music comes in all forms: multi-composers or not.