Jan 29, 2005 12:20 PM
7517 Views
(Updated Jan 29, 2005 12:20 PM)
The album has been launched amidst a big hype reviving the magic of Madan Mohan, one of the finest composers that Hindi film music has ever seen.
The name of Madan Mohan and clever marketing by his son Sanjeev Kohli has already made this album a best seller.
Sanjeev has always been associated with the music industry since long, starting with HMV even during his father?s heydays. I do not know whether he has inherited any musical talent from his father. This album definitely does not exhibit any of it.
Madan Mohan has been one of my favorites. Ironically he has been immortalized and acquired a huge fan following after his death rather than during his life-time. Though his musical genius was always applauded even by his contemporaries and rivals, he rarely ever made it big commercially. Only few major hits :Jahan Ara and Laila Majnu, Mera Saaya and Heer Ranjha to count. Many of his songs were superhits, but the films rarely ever were.He was In-house composer for Chetan Anand and Mohan Kumar, his numbers in Adalat, Mera Saya, Aapki Parchhayiyan, Anpadh, Aakhri-dao,Hakikat, Hanste Zakhm, Hindustan ki kasam, Heer Ranjha, and many more were simply superb and inimitable.
This album is being hawked as a re-creation of Madan Mohan?s compositions, I find it hard to digest, because MM was not one of those to prepare a box of tunes to which any lyricist could write words, rather he was one of those rare composers who used to set the tune only after hearing and chewing completely the situation, the story-sequence, the poetry and all other parameters. No doubt the songs are good, melodious and are different ? hatke? from the usual assembly-line stuff that we hear now a days. We are so thirsty for good music that anything resembling Madan Mohan?s music is eagerly gobbled up. It is like a homesick Indian seeking solace in an Indonesian or Vietnamese restaurant which reminds him of Indian food !
Ok, let us start reviewing the songs of this album.
- Tere liye: The signature song of the album which has become very popular. Nice lyrics, Rathod sounds very good, very mature and smooth.Nice piano pieces. Lata sounds aged, stale and bad., the sheen and shine are gone.. It is time for Lata to bow out graciously
.
Main yahan hoon; Typical Jatin-Lalit type song. Interspersed with interludes from hit Punjabi songs like laung-da-lashkara has typical JL mandolin pieces.
Yeh hum aagaye kahan: Typical JL rhythm. Udit has surely matured as a singer . Good sitar & flute pieces, very understated orchestration which was never Madan Mohan?s style but Chitragupta, Khaiyam,CR used the style, now AR Rehman uses it
Kyon Hawa: A melodious song with excellent violin counters which takes us down the memory lane.
Hum to bhai: I can swear MM had nothing to do with this song, this is an out and out Jatin-Lalit song a-la Mer Khawabon mein ( DDLJ).
Aaya tere dar par; Hussain brothers with their magnificent voices and superb control, render this Natiya qawali in typical sufi tradition .MM except for Laila Majnu has never composed such songs.
The Lodi song; Gutsy GurdasMann with his rustic charm entertains with earthy flavor. A typicl Punjabi Folk song in O P Nayyar genre. Peppy rhythm which is foot tapping, but the earthy feel of the beat is missing because of the octapad brand of synthetic beats. Anyone who has heard the Punjabi Dhol being played live, can never settle for the Octapad beats.MM never did Punjabi folk music except for once in Heer ?ranjha when he composed a ?heer?
All in all, an album worth buying and listening to, just to rehash the flavor of a bygone era, but do not be under the impression that it is vintage Madan Mohan.. Kudos to Kohli who has done a great job and Yash Chopra who has once more done a ?hatke? music after having achieved great feats in the past like resurrecting Khaiyyam ( Kabhi Kabhi), introducing Shiv-Hari into film music(Silsila), Uttam Singh(DTPH),And using N Dutta so creatively ( Dharmaputra).
