 Is the best of Himesh Reshammiya behind him? Early in his career he did his best work for the two Salman Khan starrers, "Kahin Pyar Na Ho Jaye" and "Tere Liye".
Most of what the music maker has done since then has been a residual rhythmic exercise.
In "Dil Maange More" Reshammiya with his constant wordsmith Sameer tries to be oh-so young and hip, as Sonu Nigam and company give lip to tunes that go from flip to flip, and flip to flop.
What comes between the two is nothing to write about. I did think Sonu's "Shiqwa hai tumse" has a certain zing thing to its beats. Reshammiya has a decent command over the strings-and-perscussion sections. Sonu takes care of the rest.
I'd have liked Shaan's "Kubaku mujhe tu" a lot more if only Reshammiya wouldn't make the singer roll his 'r's in song after song. I suppose that's meant to make the leading man sound like a cool dude. But I'd have Mr. Reshammiya know there's nothing cool about mis-pronouncing Hindi words specially when the dude is supposed to know a word like 'kubaku' and in another track 'kaifiyat'.
Incidentally, though the recitations in the dance song "Kubaku" sound like Shahid Kapur they are credited to 'Jayesh'. Isn't it a bit early in the young actor's career to have someone else doing ditty dancing on his behalf?
Contradictions in tunes splatter the soundtrack. There's the popcorn-and-pep Grease-styled high school pom-dance number "Gustakh dil tere liye". I think Anu Malik did this genre better in "Kucch To Hai".
The love duets, "Aisa deewana" (Sonu-Alka Yagnik) and "Maine chun liya" (Udit Narayan-Shreya Ghosal) just about scrape to the finesse line without major mishaps. But you do wish the two female singers sounded a little more interested in what they were doing.
By the time the strong-throated Kay Kay and Sunidhi Chauhan got together for the pop-bhangra "O makhna ve" I wasn't listening. I was asking myself a more important question. "Why does it happen in film music so often these days?" The sense of disappointment, that is.
In his last film "Dil Vil Pyar Vyar" director Ananth Mahadevan had lifted R.D. Burman's tunes and got them recorded. Maybe R.D. 'version' is better than Himesh Reshammiya 'original'?
This is a swanky dude-with-attitude album. But at the end of the ditty, your 'dil maange a more'.
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