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ShareFilm:Love Aaj Kal
Price: Rs179
Rating: ***
Love Aaj Kal kick-starts with a fusion of Punjabi dhol beats and the age-old 'been' sound created by Hemant Kumar in Nagin (this time on a flute) to make Twist an awesome dance floor track. But taking off from this one is the fusion track Ahun Ahun which gets even better. The merger of Punjabi and electro never sounded so good in a Bollywood track.
Then there's the hardcore shaadi-flavoured Punjabi number Thoda Thoda Pyar. It could have easily ended up a typical jaded Punjabi Bollywood track churned out year after year but Pritam's arrangement gives it the 70s feel and an authentic folk touch separating it from the rest. Chor Bazaari is hummable, groovy and fun. Neeraj Shridhar seems to have got some of the best songs to suit his voice.
Expectations are high when Mohit Chauhan sings a song, especially after Tum Se Hi and Masak Kali. He gets a soft emotional romantic number in Dooriyan. He does a decent job of the lilting melodies but it falls short of becoming extraordinary. Then there's a Kay Kay solo-number accompanied by heavy bass and rhythm. There's palpable energy flowing through all the tracks including this one.
Apart from Pritam who does an excellent job mainly in the department of fusion, melody, arrangements and rhythms there's one more person who comes out strongly here and that is lyricist Irshad Kamil. His shayari roots come to the fore as he quotes a couple of line of Shiv Kumar Batalvi in Ajj Din Chadeya. He is in top form through out the album. But he makes this one the best romantic song of Love Aaj Kal with simple melody and an old world charm. Good thing is you've got a booklet of lyrics to refer to!
The Jab We Met team comes back with high expectations riding on them and in the end Love Aaj Kal turns out to be too good to be true with not even a single weak song -- a befitting follow-up. It is Pritam's best album since Jab We Met.
Jab We Met, 2007
Jab We Met's music sky-rocketed as the film went on to become one of the most memorable love stories in Hindi cinema. It was a balanced album with dance floor hits like Mauja Hi Mauja and Nagada, feel-good fun songs like Yeh Ishq Hai and Hum Jo Chalne Lage and romantic song Tum Se Hi which did wonders for Mohit Chauhan's playback career. As it turned out Pritam had copied tunes from Korean songs but people loved it anyway.
Socha Na Tha, 2004
The film's music is realistically romantic in hindsight. The film and its music were fresh and young. One of Sandesh Shandilya's initial film score's, it had songs like Yara Rab Lut Jane De, Abhi Abhi and Na Sahi which came as a refreshing change and became popular. But since the film didn't do that well, the music too never really took off.
