Reviewed by Anish Khanna
anish@indolink.com

While Akshay Kumar has his Khiladi hangup, it is now obvious that Govinda is trying to give audiences subliminal messages that he is the new Number One. Besides Coolie No. 1, Hero No. 1, and the forthcoming Biwi No. 1, we also have the Govinda starrer Aunty No. 1, the music of which was composed by Anand Milind to Sameer's lyrics. Will Aunty be a hit? Well, judging by the track record of the past movies and the music of this film, I definitely think so.

Does that mean that Aunty has mind-blowing, chart-busting music? No, not at all! But neither did the Hero or the Coolie. Rest assured, however, as this movie, like its predecessors, has the char-anna tapori and timepass numbers that make Govinda films the uniquely entertaining experience that they are.

"Sonpapdi" is the ridiculously silly and crude "Aa aa ee" or "Sansana san" number of this film, and Vinod Rathod and Alka Yagnik give it enough gusto to make the song work. It is definitely going to go over well with all of the front-benchers in India.

Indra Kumar and "Beta" surprisingly haunt this album bigtime. Indra Kumar, you ask??? The song "Bulbula Re Bulbula" very closely resembles A-M's own "Koyal Si Teri Boli" from "Beta", and "Kuch Kuch" is "Dhak Dhak" all over again. Both songs are sung by Udit and Alka. The saving grace of the former song are Sameer's poetic lyrics. The latter song, however, is just a poor copy of a song that was copied from Ilaiyaraja to begin with (from "Aadmi Aur Apsara"). Are A-M so desperate as to have to resort to copying their own scores?

"Reshmi Rumaal Wala" is a typical filler song in a Govinda film. Vinod Rathod carries the song decently, but proves that he is not a patch on his more talented brother Roop Kumar. Vinod is joined by two things called Jyotsna and Sumati, who you will probably never hear of again, so I will refrain from critiquing their singing.

The title song is one of those numbers that demands a visual in order to properly experience it. This is Govinda's big mujra/qawalli song, which promises to be a riot on screen. Some of the lyrics are pretty funny, and one can almost picture Govinda's jhatkas. The song is adequately sung by Arzoo Banoo.

The real saving grace of this album is "Chin China China", which brings together rivals Udit Narayan and Kumar Sanu, who elevate a slightly above average tune to a rather cool and catchy one. They are joined by Poornima and supposedly Alka Yagnik, who sounds suspisciously like Sadhna Sargam to me. (Can't they print these album covers right???) The females harmonize perfectly with the males, and the song comes as a welcome breath of fresh air in a sea of mindless wonders.

Overall, the album itself proves to be neither here nor there. It manages to serve the film, however, which is just about all you can say for most Govinda film scores. No songs that you will remember for years to come, but songs that will definitely do their share in helping this film become one of the more entertaining comedies of '98.

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