Well, I am not talking about acting, but like almost every Salman film, this time SRK starts the soundtrack of Don 2 with a dialog, that merges into the second track, Zaraa Dil ko thaam lo, beautifully sung by Vishal Dadlani and Anusha Mani. I mean Shankar Ehsaan Loy this time get a voice that sounds like that of a Don instead of Shaan, who sounded all nice, not too fit for a Don I’d say. The melody is nice even though SEL keep the arrangements much as in the previous Don. Nice start.

The thing that most interested me, however, was Usha Uthup’s mysterious voice singing na koi raat hai, na koi din yahaan, to start hai ye maaya. Shankar Ehsaan Loy come up with a nice melody again, though the arrangements have been kept very espionage-y, reminding me of Karthik calling Karthik where this job was entitled to Midival Punditz. Totally like. Precisely, it’s ‘more than background.’

Dushman Mera is again the mediocre sounding number of the album that may well turn out to be the ‘Aaj ki raat 2.’ The interesting part of the song is Shankar’s voice that does not sound ‘regular’ at all. Sunitha Sarathy’s voice with controlled frequencies and almost no background music, is wonderful in the beginning. Do not listen to the song for Shankar, at least not the regular Shankar. He just uses his powerful voice to put some simple lyrics very simply out there, like Kishore Kumar? I don’t know, but yeah, Shankar is doing things in an old style here. Good chances that his singing here will totally grow on you.

The King is back theme is a bit too techno, though and the surprise voice almost made me laugh. Listen at your own risk. Btw, the second half of the theme, with a little ‘emotional’ sound is nice too.

KK starts singing Don’s title song from where Shaan left it, but the arrangements here is what is interesting. The way drums have been used, it almost reminded me of Darshan Doshi and MTV and KK’s voice may sound a little too overpowering in the beginning, at least if you imagine SRK there, but then KK is one person whose voice can never ruin a song. At least never has something like that happened till date. For the rest, SEL have done some nice work with the slightly-slower version of Don title track.

Oh, btw, the lyrics kinda disappointed me in this one. I think Javed saab could do better on this one.

If there is one more thing in the album to listen to, it’s Don waltz. Believe me, when I heard Waltz for the first time, my first thought was that Bollywood is growing up. At three minutes and twenty eight seconds, which is the length of many of my favorite songs (or so I feel, somehow), Don waltz, a tune that sounds totally like the background music of an animation/cartoon film, is a new experiment that you’d probably love to listen to, at least for once.

Overall, Don 2 is almost all that was expected, with nothing new, but the old things have been packaged well and look nice, and not just from the outside. The variety here goes less than in Farhan-SRK’s last Don, but the quality is the same, or may be a little better. Go for it if you want to, because whether you want it or not, you almost know what it is, and you’re right in thinking that you know.

The next song Aisa hi hai is a soft, slightly philosophical solo by Imaad Shah. Masterji, koi nayi cheez sikhane do and phati purani chitthiyon, is desh ki pachchis mittiyon are lyrics that, in a way, touch you. Strange. Lovely.

Psycho Baba is again strange, but less so and a bit more intriguing. While the arrangements in the song are nice, I didn’t find the composition as good as in the earlier two songs. Try you can though.

For the next song It’s all in the Mind, Imaad comes up with Rachel Verghese, who starts the song somewhere between the matrix-y music of the song, almost in a way that the song sounds more like an instrumental piece. Not bad, but not too enticing either.

Chal Soch le, is again sung by Imaad himself. The song, which uses more of Indian instruments, reminds me of songs in Shyam Benegal’s movies. Also, Imaad’s voice which sounds somewhere between Naseer’s voice and Mohit Chauhan’s soothing voice, suits the song well. Liked it again, though the instruments sound a bit too high on the voice.

The last track, 404 Theme, which is sung by Caralisa and Imaad, is a little haunting one but doesn’t have much to it.

Overall, 404 is something to look for if you believe in experimenting with music. The album has some nice and some ok songs, especially Aisa hi hai among the former.

The album sounds quite like a typical Vishal-Shekhar thing, something I never wanted to exist, because I never wanted them to be typecast. Anyway, here is a review of the album. Btw, there is one thing in album I totally loved, Prasoon Joshi’s lyrics.

The first song, Adhoore tum Adhoore hum sung by Vishal Dadlani and Alyssa Mendonça is a rock-ish thing that you can hear and tell the composer now. The song is quite likeable and gets stuck in the mind, and fairly speaking, everything with the song is right other than its predictability. Alyssa’s voice sounds good here too. Go for it.

The next song, Ajab Lehar hai, brings in Neeraj Shridhar, who sings probably for the first time for V-S. This one is not that Vishal-Shekhar really and Neeraj Shridhar totally sounds like he’s singing a Pritam song. Not much new, but the melody of the song is good, and Prasoon’s words in the song attract your attention even if there’s nothing that great in terms of lyrics in the song. Above average, just because I’ve heard ten more songs like that.

The next song, dhoop ke makaan is the one I was waiting for the most because the title itself made me think it’d have some superb lyrics. Fortunately, I was right about the lyrics and the music of the song is good too. In terms of arrangements the song sounds a bit like tumse hi tumse in some parts, but V-S have mostly kept things easy which, I feel, was a requirement of the song. Also, the song somehow reminds me of Phir Milenge, mostly because of lyrics. Superb singing by Shekhar and Caralisa. Wonderful lyrics, lovable song. DO listen.

With number four, Dooriyaan hain zaroori, Vishal-Shekhar almost go into Amit Trivedi style of rock, and do some good work there, though I had some higher expectations. The only thing I totally liked in the song is Vishal’s entry in the song that goes a bit in Anjaana-Anjaani title track style, but beats it the way he seems to be starting from nowhere, if you get what I mean.

And now, the song I most liked for its lyrics: Main Jiyoonga. Nikhil D’Souza (I hope you know the name by now) comes up to sing some deep, heartfelt words in what I’d call a very light rock mode. Though I loved the lyrics and quite liked the music of the song, I think the music could be better or something totally different. At least the back up beats could be a bit less loud so as to let me hear Nikhil’s voice a bit better. Listen to the song, for sheer lyrics if nothing else.

Adhoore tum remix is as good as a usual remix and I didn’t even hear the thing whole. So never know if it had some surprise somewhere. What I wanted to hear is the acoustic mix of Dhoop ke makaan, and I liked the acoustic version simply because of its simplicity. The song does not expose Shekhar’s voice as beautifully as Bin Tere Unplugged/Reprise, but comes close. Likeable.

Overall, Break ke Baad is an album with likeable, but predictable songs. Vishal-Shekhar may have some chartbusters here, like Adhoore tum and Ajab lehar hai, but the album, or at least these songs lack a depth, the type of depth that can be seen in Dhoop ke makaan. The best thing to happen to album was probably Prasoon Joshi who makes an awesome Main Jiyoonga and Dhoop ke makaan and is good with the rest of album too. Listen to the album for him for not more.

Best things: Dhoop ke makaan, Main jiyoonga. Top-seller: Adhoore, I guess.

The lyrics of the song look good though I have not yet been able to completely understand the exact significance of words. My guess is that the song will be more meaningful and better once we see it in the movie.

Here are the lyrics of the song.

Kal tum the yahan
To ab ho, tum mujhse door kyon
Tanhaiyan poochhen to, batla do kya kahoon
Tumhe ho na saka, kyun mera yakeen
Kami hogi koi mujh mein hi kahin
Saathiya saathiya sun bhi lo
Main tumhara hoon tum meri ho

Ret samjhi ho tum jisko woh dariya hai mera
Bas yehi keh ke tumhari nazron se main gira
Kuch tumhe hai gila kuch mujhe hai gila
Hai magar baat kya sun bhi lo
Todo jhoothe bharam, mil sake taaki hum
Saathiya saathiya sun bhi lo

Karthik calling Karthik is the new movie of Farhan Akhtar and Deepika Padukone directed by Vijay Lalwani. The music, composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, will be out on 18th January 2010. The promos of the movie are already out and we already have good reviews on Hey ya, the first song out.

So here is a preview of the music album, with some guesses as to what it may have to offer.

Karthik Calling Karthik is an album with total nine tracks, that is five songs, one instrumental theme and three remixes. Interestingly though, the remixes are expected to be more than mere 1.2x original song as Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s last remix, that of Wake up Sid title was at least as good as the original song. Also, the remix of the album’s opener Uff teri Adaa is sung by Loy and Clinton Cerejo with Shankar while the original song is sung by Shankar alone.

Sources say that the song is a wonderful one and hence I am waiting for it to arrive. The second song of the album Hey Ya is already up and running. Going by the song, the album has to be wonderful anyway. Third song of the album gets even more interesting as the singer’s name happens to be KK. The song is called Jaane ye Kya hua and is sung by KK as a solo. That makes me wait again as Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy rarely bring in KK for their songs, in fact I don’t remember any of their songs together other than Koi Kahe, Jhoom Barabar and it’s the time to disco which all had him as part of group.

Kaisi hai ye udasi. What do the words remind you of? Nothing? OK. The song is sung by Kailash Kher. Now? Reminds me of Ya Rabba. I loved the song a lot. And I hope I get one more from KCK.

The fifth and the last original song of the movie is Karthik calling Karthik which should be a Rock inclined number as far as I can see since it’s the title song of a thriller kind of movie and the singers are Suraj Jagan and Shankar Mahadevan with Caralisa Monteiro. If you let me take another guess, Caralisa should be kind of backing in the song.

Besides, there is a Karthik theme which reminds me of Akash theme and I expect it to be the one for sad, simple Karthik. At least.

After that, as I said, there are three remixes of Uff teri adaa, Karthik calling Karthik, and Hey Ya. And yes, the lyrics for all the songs are written by Javed Akhtar, oops, Akthar. That is the spelling I have seen in all promos yet. Karthikized one, is it?

Having said this, I am waiting for the album as badly as you are now.