Contributed by Avinash Ramchandani
avinash@indolink.com

Yes, this is another A.R. Rahman dubbed album. But this time it is much better than his previous few (with the exception of Hindustani). Although Hindustani's music was a big hit, this album's music is much better than even Hindustani due to the choice of singers, mainly Sonu Nigam.

The first song is a typical A.R. Rahman dubbed song, "Hello Doctor" (the rest of the lyrics are even worse!), with pathetic lyrics and decent singing by K.Kay, Storms, Noell and Anupama. Even with the bad lyrics and okay singing, the song has superb music. The second song has decent lyrics, although it just doesn't amount to a superb song. S.P. Balasubrimanium is good with the rendering of "Jaana Jaana". The music isn't as great as the previous song.

"Jaa Ri Jaa Ai Hawa" reminds of old numbers by Mohd. Rafi and at the same time it touches a new pop phase in the industry. Sonu Nigam sings the song to his best and is definatly one of his best Hindi numbers to date (that aren't Mohd. Rafi songs sung by him). S.P. Balasubrimanium is great also and ends the song with a bang, although he cannot match Sonu's voice.

"College Ki Saathi" starts out slowly with Hariharan's vocals but picks up in a rush as K. Kay takes over. The song has terrible lyrics, but the music and rythm is excellent again. Aslam Mustafa also has a small "rap" section in the middle of the song (remember "Samba Samba" from Love Birds?).

Sonu Nigam's second song, "O Meri Jaa", also his only solo seems to be derived from Whitney Houston's Bodyguard, although is much different. Sonu covers the ups and downs almost effortlessly, the music isn't even needed, although in its part it delivers the small support that Sonu needs, if any.

The final song, "Mustafa, Mustafa" is okay, although this was the biggest hit in the South Indian version of this movie. It is sung by A.R. Rahman himself, and deserves some praise for the music, although the lyrics have probably been lost in translation and dubbing.

This album will probably serve as a gainer for Sonu Nigam, who has already received much praise for his great rendering of songs in Tamanna, Jeet, Aisi Bhi Kya Jaldhi Hai and Bewafa Sanam. A.R. Rahman may get a hit out of this album, but the real hero is really Sonu Nigam who drives the songs of this album up a notch.

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