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Producer & Director: Shakeel Noorani
Music: Aadesh Shrivastava
Lyrics: Sameer

Reviewed by: Akhlaq Hussain
akhlaq@indolink.com

GOVINDA continues's his flood in the new year 2000 with another comedy caper JORU KA GHULAM, where he has been paired opposite TWINKLE KHANNA for the first time. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that SHAKEEL NOORANI is trying to make a DAVID DHAWAN like film, especially from the music. Heck if HARMESH MALHOTRA could do it, why not him?

The album begins with the title track sung by ABHIJEET and SUNIDHI CHAUHAN. Abhijeet does an excellent job for this typical ChiChi number, Sunidhi seems to suit KARISMA more if you ask me, but in the 2 lines she's given to sing you can't complain too much (let's just hope those 2 lines aren't going to be analagous to Twinkle's role in the film.) JORU KA GHULAM has a nice rhythm to it also.

Next we have NEECHE PHOOLON KI DUKAN with SONU NIGAM and AADESH SHRIVASTAVA (lending the JOHNNY LEVER-like voice). It's a typical "tapori-teaser" number which is picturized on Govinda and JOHNNY LEVER in the film. By now Sonu has mastered the art of a Govinda number so there's no need to comment on if he's good or not.

The highlight of the album TUMHARE BINA KUCH is next. Sung by SONU NIGAM and HEMA SARDESAI, the song is sultry and romantic at the same time, something very few music directors are capable of giving. Hats off to AADESH for this number, his forte as a percussionist (while assisting NADEEM-SHRAVAN and LAXMIKANT-PYARELAL) is clearly evident in this number. Sadly this may be the only track on the album worth listening to more than once as the album goes downhill from here. If the picturization is good, this could be the highlight of the film also.

RAJESH MISHRA and JASPINDER NARULA follow with MERI NAZAR. The lesser said about this teaser number the better.

KHULA HAI MERA PINJRA with KUMAR SANU and ALKA YAGNIK is next. The only saving grace is the orchestration, the song is pretty much pointless otherwise. Also be thankful the opening line was sung by Sanu and not Yagnik, had the film released about 5 or 6 years ago it might have been otherwise.

The album ends with WOH AYEE sung by SONU NIGAM and ALKA YAGNIK. The song compliments the heroine's features, of course this is the standard fare in a Govinda film so one should expect 2 or 3 of these kinds of numbers. If you listened to the last 2 numbers, you might as well finish your mediocre music session with this song, but don't say I didn't warn you.

Joru Ka Ghulam is a film strictly for the masses, as the music dictates. You can't really blame Aadesh Shrivastava for the mediocre quality of the music. Shakeel Noorani isn't trying to make another HUM AAP KE HAIN KAUN here, just another COOLIE NO. 1 or DULHE RAJA. The film's music is already doing well in MUMBAI but has been rejected everywhere else? No prizes for guessing where ChiChi is distributing the film, just be thankful the film wasn't called JORU NO. 1, that's all.