Reviewed by Anish Khanna
anish@indolink.com

The recent death of music director Laxmikant has sent shockwaves throughout the industry. The last time the Hindi filmi music world lost a great, R. D. Burman, his death ironically coincided with the release of one of his career highlights - 1942: A Love Story, immortalizing Mr. Burman even farther than before. Now, shortly after Mr. Laxmikant's untimely demise, we have the audio release of Manoj Kumar's "Jai Hind: The Pride" with music by the Laxmikant- Pyarelal. Unfortunately - unlike R. D. Burman, L-P come up with a score that is at best a shame to their great name. The recording quality is poor, the orchestrations are re-hashes of the old beats, and the melodies also offer nothing new.

The front-bencher song that might just catch on from this album is "Padosan Pakad Gayee". No, I did not really like this Alka-Udit duet, but the vaguely comedic subject matter might appeal to some.

I actually was very happy to hear Nitin Mukesh singing again (I thought he had given up singing and taken up eating as a profession with the amount of weight he's gained...). Parts of "Aaj Ki Raat" and "Pani O Pani" actually have a hint of something fresh, and part of that is due to Mr. Mukesh. Preeti Uttam, incidentally, also chalks up another impressive job with the former song. "Main Kya Hoon", however, is just so stupid (with B A D Manoj Kumar lyrics) that even Nitin Mukesh, Alka Yagnik, and Kavita can't save this one.

"Mombatiye Mombatiye" is a fast-paced (though somewhat boring) solo by Alka Yagnik, which really gave me no urge to hit the rewind button. The same thing goes for "Aadavarz Hai" by Sonu Nigam and Alka, which just sounded all too unoriginal.

The album ends (finally!!!) with "Sakhi Re Tere Naina" sung by Alka and Reema Das (a Jaspinder Narula wanna-be) which, in keeping with the rest of the album, is also nothing special or innovative.

It is unfortunate that two greats who composed so many memorable melodies should have to end their collaboration on such a disappointing note. I, for one, was probably more surprised than anyone by this album. After "Bhairavi", I thought L-P were experimenting with something different, but this album is filled with poorly recycled, less memorable L-P beats and tunes - maybe something to skip for the hardcore L-P fans who want to remember the duo in all their glory.

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