The album starts with Iltija, Rishabh Srivastava’s song from his debut album Iltija. The song on the Bhatt pattern is an okay composition and sung okay too, making an okay though a little unevenly spaced start.

The next song Aap ki Aahat, composed by Toshi-Sharib sounds like the beginning of Bhatt-camp-song again as the beginning seconds remind me of aye kaash, kash yoon hota, but then the young Sabri brothers get into a different mood as they compose a slower tune for Sonu Nigam to sing, with some interesting lyrics as well. Nice one, something that Sonu Nigam sounds nice singing.

Sheet Lahar, composed by Gaurav and sung by Shreya, is a slow, nice composition with simple lyrics. The slow pace of the song may not appeal to all and definitely not one for ‘quick listening’ but if you give it time, lyrics as well Shreya’s singing would appeal to you. Nice job by Gaurav Dagaonkar.

The next song is again by Gaurav Dagaonkar, and is my favorite from the movie. Yup, it’s KK singing, where the irritation claimed by the lyrics can almost be heard in his voice. Barham hain hum is something to listen to, definitely.

Qubool, the next, is a regular Toshi-Sharib song, sung by Toshi, but then the song has an added dose of good lyrics, that too in prayer to god, making the song nicer to listen. Liked.

Sheet Leher comes in a different version, this time sung by Tia Bajpai, and sounds okay.

The last one from the album, Sunidhi Chauhan’s Hai Rama Rama, composed by Toshi-Sharib, doesn’t seem to be any purpose more than being yet another item number in the movie.

Overall, however, the album is good, with Gaurav Dagaonkar giving some good numbers while Toshi-Sharib give more or less their average, which is good, to say the least. Do listen to the album especially for Sonu, Shreya, n KK’s songs.

The album starts with Aaj bhi Party sung by Suraj Jagan, which impresses with its sound from the very beginning. Yet another party song, Aaj bhi party is based on a nice tune and the sound of the song has been well worked on. Suraj Jagan once again does well.

The second song of the album, Ishq hothon se to hota nahi bayaan is a nice surprise from KK and Shreya Ghoshal, that goes a little in the ‘Ehsaan’ way, without the high notes. I mean, the song is a really soulful number with lovely lyrics and soft music on a nice melody, but the background has some rock’ish effects here and there. Well fused. Do listen.

Peepni or Peepdi Bajaye Dil as it sounds like, sung by Jaspreet Singh and Mona Thakur, is one more nice party song from the album. Even though the song is kinda catchy and has a sound that should work, Kumaar’s lyrics are just okay here. Not bad, but the song would need some time to work and hence may work well with some good promotion.

Sasha Tirupati singing Ankh piji te dil roya for once reminded me of Tujhe Bhula Diya, and that’s not so wrong as the song goes almost in the mood, and of course, Kumaar does wonders with lyrics in such songs. Ah, the other name in the song is that of KK. So now you got some idea how Abhi Abhi should be. Well, the song on a really nice melody, with quite light music, is of the type that sounds nice when you listen to it for the first time, and then just grows on you slowly. Again something to listen to.

But after such a lovely song what made me smile was the end of the album. Neeraj Shridhar and Sunidhi Chauhan’s quick sounding ‘One More One More – Ankh da Ishara‘ made me think I was listening to the last song of some concert and the song’s intention was to make me dance with all the energy that was left in me. Maybe not one for a very long shelf life, but something to start dancing on from the first beat.

Overall, Jo Hum Chahein is a nice album with some songs that range from soft-soulful to stand-up-n-dance. Completely loved Ishq hothon se and even one more one more in its own way, but I guess abhi abhi would run a long race too, provided the new star cast of the movie collects enough support to run the race.

Second song in a row begins in such a way that you are bound to think if the composer is some old follower of Pritam. Anyway, KK sings the simple tune of Tere naam se in his lovely voice, almost reminding me of hothon se chhoo lo tum, mera geet amar kar do. I mean, I wonder how many songs have risen in standard simply because of the voice and the way of singing of KK. Not an exceptionally good track, but you’d most probably like to listen to it.

Reeky’s aana phir se aana with all the bands and slightly Atif’ish singing sounds more like a debut album song that tries hard to impress, and does it to a little extent, but never enough.

Aaj Ishq da Mausam of Master Saleem featuring Ritu Pathak is a nice Punjabi composition with some added rap and of course, that wonderful singing of Saleem, adding up to a nice, likable, danceable Punjabi number.

Mehroom hoon main, sung by Shaan and Manjeera Ganguly, is a bit old in its making, even though it has got added lyrics in English. A significant part of the song goes with the English words or ‘mehroom hoon main’ itself, not leaving very much to the song anyway. In short, old stuff, not really recommended.

Vipin Patwa, the composer of the album, features himself in the title song along with the singer of the song, Shreya Ghoshal. Anyway, the tune of the song is catchy and lyrics aren’t far behind. While Vipin takes on the fast paced portions of the song, Shreya does some quality singing at her own pace, and the overall result is worth listening to. Worth a try for sure.

The last song of the album is Maskara with Arun Daga, Sasha and Sadhu, more or less based on ‘kajra mohabbat wala.’ I guess on such a wonderful song, there could be some better work done. Strictly okay, even though no strictness is there in the song.

Overall, Vipin Patwa seems to have got an average style of composition and arrangements with some ups and downs, but mostly wherever he has got some really good singers, they have pulled off the songs, and hence, almost half of the album has got songs which are worth a try at least. I’d say give it a try, you might find a few good tracks, maybe even for the longer run.

The next, do kabootar gets some reduction in noise levels, and even though it’s Kunal again, the song and the singing are both better. Even though the song is nice, if you listen to the lyrics, they seem worthy of a little more serious tune. Not bad still. Like it.

And here comes X-Factor, as producer Sanjay Leela Bhansali gets Nirmatee from the show to sing a song composed by Shamir Tandon and Kavita Seth, and written by Deepa Sheshadri. While the song seems like a last moment addition to the album, and may not be in the movie, the singer is definitely nice, another addition in the list of husky voices, and the song, Intezaar, is not bad. A bit heard-somewhere type, but nice.

Kunal’s next, Take it Easy, brings Gayatri as well, though she doesn’t really get much in the song. Anyway, the song with a lot of easy on ears guitar is easy on ears overall too, and the light lyrics keep it natural. Like it.

Hitesh Sonik composed Tu, sung by Sunidhi Chauhan, comes next. Sunidhi almost whispers the song, making her voice a little husky and tough to identify in the process. Must listen.

Yaadon ke album has got some really wonderful lyrics from Amitabh Bhattacharya, while KK gives life to the slightly rock’ish composition of Ajay-Atul.

Overall My Friend Pinto is a nice album and has some nice songs, especially the last two, namely tu and yaadon ke album mein. While Kunal’s Do kabootar and Take it easy are fine too.

After Kakka Kakka and Gharshana, the song that is Khwabon Khwabon here, is as good as it was back in 2003 and 2004. Yes, it has the potential to be a rage here as well, especially with the Gibberish Suchitra is performing for the third time. Do listen.

The next, Chahoon bhi is nothing less than awesome. Bombay Jaishree sings the gem with her usual superbness, but when Karthik enters the song, the quality goes only up. A superb, lovely, slow, must-listen number. Hats off to Harris Jayaraj. As far as I know, it’s a new composition by him. Let me know if I am wrong there.

Dum hai to Aaja, composed by Lalit Pandit and sung by Mahua Kamat, is a simple tune with not-too-hard rock style. Lalit Pandit is not too great with his music, nor are the lyrics too great. Mahua could be better, and the same goes for the song.

Main Chali, again a composition of Harris, clearly states his re-entry in the album within seconds. The song sung by Naresh Iyer and Shreya singing reminds me of the earlier days of Rahman, or to some extent Ghajini in its arrangement. Totally worth a try, especially for the variety of music he has put in one song. And yes, it is Shreya Ghoshal only, a little difficult to believe at some points, even though she sings in her typical style.

For the last song again, you don’t need the album’s cover to decide who has composed this one. Harris this time brings in Vijay Prakash, Shalini Singh and Neha Bhasin for Dil ki hai Tamanna. The music is light and simple, with basic, light arrangements, while vocals take priority once again, and Vijay Prakash just amazes with his voice. Neha Bhasin’s voice is well used too.

Overall, Force is awesomeness from Harris. The only thing I am wondering about is why the producers asked Lalit for a song. With this kind of music, even Munni would not fit well.

If you’re one for quality music, Go. Buy.

I was still in the first song when a chorus broke into some rocky words and Neha Bhasin into Dhunki Dhunki Dhunki laage. While the music is lovely, it’s Neha who surprises me with her lovely singing here. She’s been good in some Salim-Sulaiman songs earlier, in Fashion, as well as Pyaar Impossible, but this could be the song that would restate her entry into Hindi film industry.

The next song Chhoo Mantar is, I would say, a typical Sohail Sen piece, with his signature beats, and if I didn’t know it from the cover, I’d say is sung by him as well. Yes, it’s bad how I still don’t get Benny Dayal’s voice after so many of his songs that I completely love. Aditi Singh Sharma is as soft and husky with her voice here as she always is.

Isq Risk, the next song, sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, gives a little small surprise in the beginning as you hear a radio (read AIR) style prologue to the song, telling whose music and words the song has. Sohail Sen’s melody is a bit ’90s in its treatment, but with Rahat singing, the song sounds pretty nice. Irshad Kamil’s words are lovely here.

Ali Zafar’s only entry in the soundtrack, Madhubala is simply enjoyable. I don’t think I want to use any other word for the song. It’s his signature ‘Masti’ that literally shows up here, nicely supported by Shweta Pandit.

Shahid Mallya, another name that is a bit new for me, is growing up quite fast nowadays. After Naina wali Whiskey in Sahi Dhandhe Galat Bande and with Mausam lined up for him, it’s the third place I have seen his name in this week, for Do Dhaari Talwar here. The song, with a little Punjabi flavor in it, mostly because of Shahid’s singing style and percussion based arrangements, is quite fast paced and enjoyable, though doesn’t look like very long lasting.

Overall, MBKD is a typical Yashraj album with songs that will be liked instantly by the public. Be it the title song or Dhunki, Isq risk or Madhubala, the composer is quite clear on what he wants the song to do and I feel that it would be a big plus for the movie. Go buy it if you like typical hit soundtracks of Bollywood.

PS: One interesting thing about the album is that even though Yashraj use a new composer here, many of the singers are the ones who have sung a lot for YRF, with their regular composers Salim-Sulaiman, especially Benny Dayal, Neha Bhasin and Shweta Pandit.

Papon’s self composed (probably his first in Bollywood) Zindagi aisi waisi is quite lovely and makes Papon sound promising once again, this time as a composer as well. I had already loved him in Jiyein Kyun, but this time he sounded more serious. Protique Mojoomdar’s positive lyrics are definitely a plus.

Susmit Bose and Shivji Dholi’s Jeevan ek rangoli hai is more of a live thing and the folk’ish number sounds different, like it’s recorded out of the recording rooms, like old songs. But the lyrics of the song are good and the song gives a ‘real’ feel.

Udan pe baitho kaaga bole is another small, real sounding track from Shivji Dholi which is almost unplugged with just a harmonium to support him.

The last track, children’s version of chaand taare jeb mein hain is an okay one. The version reminds me of Chillar Party where Amit Trivedi had got some children to sing in a wonderful manner, but here there is nothing like that and children just make a good chorus, like it happened in old movies during one time. Not bad.

Overall, I am Kalam is a good album with assorted composers. Interestingly the album doesn’t have usual run of the mill songs and also the lyrics of almost all the songs are good, irrespective of who they have been written or sung by. I hope the movie is equally good.

Buy I am Kalam Audio CD Here.

From the second song onwards, it gets Pritam. Antenna sounds a lot like some song from Ready, probably the sound matches character dheela hai. Also, the lyrics are written by Amitabh Bhattacharya, but didn’t like the concept of the song itself. Still, the sound of the song IS catchy and can catch up well with some good promotion.

Suhail Kaul and Ishq Bector’s School ke din is a well designed, well sung number from Pritam. The alternate use of Ishq Bector’s rap and Suhail’s touching voice (remember Baatein kuch ankahi si from Life in a Metro?) talking about something like school days is wonderful. Go for it.

The next song is Sunidhi sung Better not mess with me (Rock Mix), an okay composition with a not too good treatment. Probably the song doesn’t suite the rock mode that well. OK.

The next, called Undi the Condi, is sung by Shaan and Aditi Singh Sharma. As far as my knowledge of sound goes, this sounds like a typical college-dance number, something from the school of Ishk-Vishk to understand, though the genre is quite old. And let me tell you, while Shaan sounds fine in the song, it’s Aditi who sounds almost as sweet as she did in Katra Katra of Dev.D, almost beating Shaan with her sweetness. Nothing too great, but liked it.

Enters Naresh Iyer with a ‘Soul Version’ of Jaane Kyon (Don’t look back, the song is coming for the first time in the album). The song is a good composition and Naresh’s almost flawless singing makes it even better, but somehow the guy sounds a bit nasal, probably only in his ‘ye’ while singing, tujh bin tanha han ye raatein… Probably the best of the album yet.

Remember ye dil hai nakhrewala? The girl, Shefali Alvaris, sings the club mix for Better not mess with me, and to me at least, sounds much more natural than Sunidhi did in the song. Nice singing for sure. NOW I like this song too.

Next is a Sufi version of Jaane Kyon and this one comes from none other than Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan, who almost effortlessly sings as good as Naresh Iyer, and listening to the songs once, I cannot decide which version is better. OK, probably Shafqat has done better here. Lovely song.

Now, while the original ‘Antenna‘ had Benny Dayal and Roshan Abbas singing, the ‘reloaded’ ‘SRK mix’ upgrades to KK and Anupam Amod and the song sounds like ‘Love Mera Hit Hit’ to me. Wanna compare again? Reloaded is the version. I sometimes (read with every album) wonder why Pritam has so many versions. One of those times again.

The last song happens to be an unplugged version of the title song, sung by Vinnie Hutton and Apeksha Dandekar. The song, much in English, is beautifully sung and sounds probably better than the original version simply because of the way it is sung. The use of chorus near the end is nice again.

Overall, Always Kabhi Kabhi doesn’t have anything much different but some things in the album can click as Pritam gives some regular, but good music here. Look out for School ke Din and Jaane Kyon. SRK is anyway gonna make you listen to Antenna.

For now, here is some detail about the show, mostly about who all are gonna be there on the show.

The show will have twenty artistes. While the top Bollywood line of the show comprises of Shankar Mahadevan, Shaan, KK and Sunidhi Chauhan, we’ll also see Kailash Kher, Richa Sharma, Shruti Pathak, and Benny Dayal from Bollywood singers.

Besides, there will be Raghu Dixit, or should I say The Raghu Dixit Project, the well known name from Bangalore; once so popular Colonial Cousins – Hariharan and Leslie Lewis; comparatively lesser known Bollywood singers Harshdeep Kaur and Akriti Kakkar (Harshdeep is winner of two television reality shows and has even sung for A R Rahman in Rang De Basanti, Akriti has almost twenty movies to her credit where she has sung); and the singer of mora saiyyan, aankhon kay sagar, mitwa, and many more, Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan.

Then there are Sabri Brothers*, Aftab and Hashim Sabri, qawwali singers who have sung for Hindi films as well, my best memory being of Allah Allah from Yeh Dil Ashiqana (no idea how crappy the movie was but the songs were good, the qawwali being one of the best) and Tumse mil ke dil ka hai jo haal from Main hoon na.

Also the show will have Sufi singers Puranchand and Pyarelal Wadali i.e. Wadali Brothers there too. The pair has also sung a couple of songs for Bollywood, the latest being Rangrez in Tanu weds Manu.

In lesser known singers, which could and should make the real life of the show, there will be Assamese Bihu specialist Khagen Gogoi, Tamilnadu’s once-a-singer-at-thirteen Chinna Ponnu, another Assamese Mausam Gogoi, maker of boatmen band Majhi Mallah Saurav Mandal and New Delhi’s eclectic music group Advaita.

What is still a confusion though, is that while the list above is given on the ‘Artists’ page of the Coke Studio website, there is another sentence that says ‘The collaborations are so eclectic as to bring together Shafqat Ali and Shruti Pathak, Sunidhi Chauhan and Wadali Brothers, Kailash Kher and Papon, Shankar Mahadevan and Khogen Da, and Bombay Jayshree, Richa Sharma and Rashid Khan among others‘ while going by the list, I won’t find Papon, Bombay Jayshree and Rashid Khan on the show.

* My guess is that there is some mix up regarding them on the Coke Studio’s official website, they claim that Sabri Brothers are a Pakistani Qawwali party.

The next, Jaaniya, by Siddharth Basrur, is a lovely ballad with some captivating beats. May not sound too good immediately after a rocking Tum ho mera pyaar, but a wonderful song with its own identity, nonetheless.

The next song, tera hi hona chahoon, brings in Jojo with Najam Sheraz. The song that interestingly starts with a Tabla, later turns into almost full-fledged rock number. And I’d say kudos to Chirantan for pulling that off quite well. Third song in a row that is not bad, at the least.

Next comes Mujhe de de har gham tera, which is a sad song by its lyrics but sounds soothing by its music. Interestingly (for me at least), the combination generally makes a great, at least quite good song, in longer term. And I am liking the song already. Good, but takes time, as I said.

The next name is of Nikhil D’Souza, who comes up to sing You’re so beautiful, an expectably romantic, and not-so-expectably Hindi song, in his own typical style (yeah, he has one) which gives the album a little more variety, something the album kinda lacks even with such beautiful songs.

The end of album comes with the actress Tia Bajpai singing a song called Sau Baras, and quite admirably, she sounds good even with very few instruments playing in the background. The song is more like poetry, at least the first half of it. Nice, kinda gives the album it’s only song with a female as Tum ho mera pyaar hardly gives Suzi a chance.

So overall Haunted – 3D is a ‘not bad at all’ album which one would like to listen to even though it doesn’t have much new to offer. Probably because it takes you back to those days that you haven’t probably realized have passed, or maybe simply because of its good, if not ‘very’ good, quality. Wait, was that last sentence too philosophical for a review?