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.

The next, Neeraj Shridhar and Sunidhi’s Pardaa Nasheen, again is not too impressive, even though the melody of the song is nice.

The last song of the album, Shake it saiyyan, sung by Sunidhi Chauhan with Haji Springer is more like a remix album of the early 2000s, but sounds fine nonetheless. In fact the arrangements of the song are nice too, and overall it is one of the better songs of the album.

Interestingly, the two remixes there, for title song and shake it saiyyan, are both not bad as well.

Overall, Rascals is okay to listen on radio or in the movie IF you watch the movie, but I don’t think there is much worth buying in the album.

Wait, was it Pritam rendering those English lines at the start of this wonderful song? It should have been Neeraj to start this romantic treat from KK, the song that’s called Humko Pyar hua. Not much to say, this one is good again. Go for this as well.

Enter DSP. THE Devi Sri Prasad with his only composition for Ready 2011, sung by Mika. I knew only one Ringa ringa in Telugu and as soon as I started the song, it was unmistakably the one. And I must say that the dhinka chika remake is not bad. Gives me the feel of the original song to quite an extent, probably as close as it could be. What is to be seen is how well the song fits Bollywood, cause I still imagine a typical Telugu movie background with the song. I’m in for this one.

Enter long vacha at the start. Enter must-dance-on-this DJ. Enter RFAK. In a whole just-dance mood, with his awesomely superb singing. Enter Tulsi with her can-somehow-sing-well-with-RFAK mood. Awesome song.

OK. Maybe I said too much about that last song, meri ada bhi aaj kya kar gayi, but frankly, I loved the song and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan singing in that mixture of long-vacha and some more pieces of popular Punjabi songs with that good melody at that fast pace, making a good thing to dance on, or simply listen to, as you like it.

Since I didn’t find anything special in the remixes, that is kinda all I have to say about the album, which actually isn’t less in any way. The album has just four songs and while all four are good, they are also different in their style and representation. While Pritam sticks to formula in Character Dheela, there is some experimentation added in Meri ada bhi, KK is good as ever and DSP’s composition is almost all new to Bollywood listeners. In short, it seems the music is ready to rock you, are you Ready?

Sandesh’s album starts with a song called Sarphira sa hai dil, sung by Shreya and, wait-for-it, Neeraj Shridhar. Well, Sandesh seems to be doing things more market-way in this one (and hence comes Neeraj) but not in a negative way. A soft-romantic and good melody but with some not-so-typical-of-him arrangements from the composer. Sounds more like a good work of Pritam, definitely worth a try.

The next song, Tera Intezaar, brings in Vijay Prakash and Gayatri Ganjawalla and while this one may not be loved by some fans of Sandesh Shandilya’s fans (I hope he has some), it’s a good one again. The beats may sound a bit too much but Vijay Prakash gets to sing a lovely one and I think the song can pick up quite fast.

The next song, Bhoore Bhoore Badal has Kunal Ganjawalla and Shreya doing some back-to-Shandilya singing. Nice and kinda experimental one with some good lyrics, but somehow this poetry doesn’t take off as well as I expected at the start. Still do listen to the song if you like Shandilya’s music. You might like it as well.

Kunal-Gayatri Ganjawalla sung title song is the, well, boring title song, for probably the credits. Kunal in his typical style and not too bad, but nothing really musical.

Next comes a Mohit Chauhan-Shivangi Kashyap sung Kahin se Chali aa, which is attracting from the very first word. I need not say that Mohit Chauhan and Sandesh can be a deadly combination, and in this one Mohit seems to be just gliding his voice on the music in a very natural style without any special treatment. Kinda soothing, though I probably won’t say the same for Shivangi.

Again, Reeky Dev’s revisited Tera Intezaar isn’t bad. The Mumbai-based-Bangladeshi singer (says FB) does sound good here. Will probably look for the name going further.

The last, Reaching for the Rainbow sung by Jenice Sobti and Vinnie Hutton, is a soothing all-English melody, which somehow enticed such a hardly-ever English listener. Not bad, I guess.

Overall, Love u Mr Kalakaar seems to be a good step as it definitely goes beyond my expectations, which was actually a big naught (I didn’t know it was a Barjatya’s thing) and even though the album is not something huge, the songs are okay and almost all are at least worth a try. So do listen to the album and decide how many songs would stick to your playlist. I expect a few, at least kahin se chali aa, and probably a version of Tera intezaar.

The album starts with Mika’s Pyaar do Pyaar lo, that you might have caught on TV. The oldie-newie song sounds more like a remix and looks very much like a try to redo apni to jaise taise from Housefull. I guess Pritam has been successful, but not so much as SEL were with theirs.

The next song, Razia, is sung by Saleem and Ritu Pathak, but Saleem can be confused for a girl with his high pitch here. Allah bachaye meri jaan ki razia gundon mein phans gayi sounds like a typical item song and Ritu sounds pretty good with her singing. Nothing new, just another good product from the Factory.

Pyaar tera pyaar mujhe = Main yahan bhi, main wahan bhi (Toh Baat Pakki). Next beat seems to be taken from Action replay. Even though I liked Neeraj Shridhar and Richa Sharma’s Full volume with it’s never-too-high notes, Pritam looks like he’s out of composition styles and trying to feed old things, though I don’t actually think it’s the case.

When I heard Sonu Nigam’s My Heart is beating, I was wondering why Thank You seems so inspired by Housefull. This one is sung by Sonu very much in Mohammad Rafi’s style, precisely like the ones the legend sang for Shammi Kapoor. With good promotion, song should do well. Liked Sonu’s singing in this one, and not bad work by Pritam as well.

Pyaar Mein is the last original song of the album, which is sung by Neeraj Shridhar and Javed Ali. Again, Pritam looks like captured in his own styles even while he gives a good song. While Javed Ali makes the song his own by singing it beautifully, Neeraj’s ‘chorus’ sounds lovely. But what fascinated me the most in the song was the backing vocals that appeared from the very start of the song. Unfortunately, I don’t know whose voice that is, though I presume it’s either Suzanne or Bianca Gomes as their names are mentioned for backing vocals in the album. Also, this is probably one song of the album which is good not only in music but also with words. Amitabh Bhattacharya is the guy holding the pen here. And another similarity with Housefull. OK. Excuse me for that.

And while I was looking for the backing vocals, one more thing I came to know was that Sachin and Jigar were among the programmers of the album. Nice to know that.

I didn’t try listening to the remixes especially they were all merely ‘remix’es and mentioned nothing more specific than that.

So overall, Thank you is an okay, run of the mill thing in which most of the songs are danceable while one particular song called Pyaar mein is something close to Tum mile’s level, but a bit lower than that, also because it’s so much similar. Quite what was expected from Pritam, or actually slightly better if you think of No Problem.

When you listen to the lyrics of Chaar baj gaye, for once you feel that the song is a try to make another Amplifier, but then there are certain differences and Hard Kaur is a bit different from what she does in every second album nowadays. The song is okay in composition but the mixture of composition, lyrics and vocals should be enough to make the song a party thing, that, if it reaches enough people.

In the next, Rab sab se sona, Sachin-Jigar do a full Pritam and make Neeraj Shridhar do a song that is typical him. The song, a relatively slow composition, works simply for its arrangements that completely go with Neeraj’s voice.

The next song, awaaz, is sung by one of the composer duo, Jigar. And while the lyrics of the album seem to stand out from the first two lines, very soon one may find similarities to A R Rahman and Sohail Sen’s patriotic compositions (latter from KHJJS). Still, the song is not too similar to any song and sounds like a good one with some fine lyrics and some likable music as well. Do try this one.

With Mika and a song named Fully Faltu, the album takes a one eighty turn and comes to a completely I-will-make-you-hum-this-at-any-cost song. Yes, aaltu-jalaltu part of the song is a bit catchy, very easy, and highly repeated so that one’s mind is almost pressurised to place it somewhere. Nothing too great, but with the tactics and promos, it should work.

Vijay Prakash and Priya Panchal come next with Gale laga le, another compositions with slight Rahman effects. I suppose this is no coincidence that the composers have come up with one of Rahman’s favorite singers. But beyond Vijay, I liked the voice of Priya who seemed to sing something like Shilpa Rao and somehow Alyssa Mendonça too. Though I liked the song, I don’t think the song offers a lot more than awaaz.

Nayee Subah is sung again by Jigar, but this time it’s something like Ale (Golmaal 3). I wonder how I’m able to find everything in the album similar to something else, but this is what I feel with every song I hear in the album.

Anyway, while the penultimate song, O Teri, sung by Jigar again, is more about seen and unseen Obscenities, Neuman Pinto’s Percentage somehow sounds somewhat like Ten on ten, but on a completely different topic. While the lyrics of the song had a huge scope of being better, the overall song somehow manages to sound okay.

Overall, in terms of music, F.A.L.T.U. does not literally characterizes its name, but is not on the opposite end either. While for a comedy songs are not too bad, in certain place there is a lot to be done. While there is not much new, songs like char baj gaye and awaaz are worth a try.

The next, the title song, Mumbai Mast Kalandar, is more of a background thing with some rap and some pop. While some of the lyrics sound almost meaningless, some lines are quite good too, making the song overall an okay experience. If promoted well, the song has a potential to be liked.

The third song, Raam Naam Bhaj le, is again a song sung by Neeraj Shridhar. Now this one is an Afsar-Sajid composition, but when you still feel you’re listening to Pritam composition, you believe that anything that Neeraj sings sounds like coming from Pritam. Anyway, the song is like an average Neeraj-Pritam songs and raam naam reminds me of Bhool Bhulaiyya too.

The next song Sunn Zara is sung by KK and comes up as a pleasant surprise. The song is a soft-romantic and quite a beautiful one, which coming from KK sounds definitely good. Not too great or new, but definitely a good one by Afsar-Sajid.

Mess it up brings Shail Hada in a new style as he sings a semi-English quite-rock song with Earl Edgar. The song seems to be a bit higher on the rock than prevalent Bollywood standards, but Shail Hada definitely sounds good in his new role and sings it well enough to make me listen.

Shail Hada again comes up with Aditi Singh Sharma for the next song, this time with a Punjabi dance number with some deviation. The song is an Anaamik Chauhan composition, like the previous one. The interesting thing in the song is the way Shail sings it, but the beats and the arrangement of the song could be better.

Overall, Mumbai Mast Kallander is an album where the producers have definitely tried hard to get some good music with some less-paid-than-Pritam composers and to some extent have been able to get things done too, but not all the things work in the album, and the result is just average. Try Neeraj Shridhar songs if you like him and go for the KK one. Rest, as I said, is just kinda okay.

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 next song O Bekhabar seems to be on the lines of Tum jo aaye of OUATIM and even though in this one Shreya sings alone (as compared to tum jo aaye’s Tulsi-Rahat) she sounds good enough to equal the hit. Likeable song.

The third song, Nakhre, sung by Francois Castollino, is a step ahead of zor ka jhatka when it comes to lyrics. The song has some matter-of-fact lyrics (according to boys that is) which can make you laugh even before you reach the theater to watch the movie. Definitely interesting, again.

Sunidhi and Ritu Pathak’s chhan ke mohalla is another interesting number. With old school lyrics of item songs and an added punch of ‘jali to-bujhi na’ the song is fine to hear, and definitely will be worth a watch once the video is out there. I will not be surprised if this one becomes a chartbuster with the video out.

Tera Mera Pyaar sung by Karthik, Mahalakshmi Iyer and Antara, though, doesn’t sound all that interesting and sounds more like a chorus based thing, which here reminds me of Vande Mataram and other patriotic songs we used to sing at school, with all due respect to both. Somehow didn’t like this one much.

The next song, Mika’s dhak dhak dhak, is an interesting one again. More musical than just interesting, and a more regular song, dhak dhak sounds good as the song is quite beat-based but Pritam has done some good experimenting with instruments (was that bagpiper that I was loving the most?) while Mika’s voice keeps things from sounding boring.

Luk Chhup Jaana is the next song where KK sings the whole song and Tulsi gets to sing one line some five-six times. And somehow that gives me a sadistic pleasure. Anyway, the song sounds too loud and doesn’t even rock properly. I’d say not such a good use of KK’s wonderful voice. Could be better.

In the next, Suraj Jagan’s I am dog gone crazy, Pritam probably tries to make up for Snoop Dogg’s Singh is Kinng, but quite predictably, doesn’t reach that level. But the good thing is that the song still sounds fine, especially as Suraj sings with his heart. Not bad. Likeable.

I somehow don’t like Shreya singing fast numbers. Otherwise, all is well with the next song baaki main bhool gayi. Actually this one is not actually that fast a song but the instruments may give such illusion. In fact Shreya sings this one beautifully if you listen to her singing only, not concentrating on the unavoidable drums. I think this one could be better on arrangements. Not bad though.

Overall, Action Replayy is exactly what it was supposed to be, an ‘interesting’ album. The album has songs that sound good and have some good music, but more than that the album relies on its interesting lyrics and the punch factor in music. I don’t think there’ll be anything that you’ll be singing for years, but everything that you’d like to dance and laugh with for as-long-as-it-works.

The first song, Chhalla, is definitely a superb thing. Babu Mann’s song, which is so-heard, so-lovable, so-wonderful thing, I need not say will be an instant hit. Babu’s singing is lovable too. Btw, the song has Suzanne D’Mello singing too. Though she comes a second this time as Babu steals all the magic. Tadada-Tadada-Tada-dada.

Enters Nikhil D’Souza. If you’re reading the album covers carefully, you’d easily be knowing that the guy is progressing like anything and has sung with as varied composers as Amit Trivedi, Vishal-Shekhar and now Pritam, all that in less than two months. Well, the guy sounds pretty good and quite easy on ears, especially here as he sings Mere Bina, a slow, not-too-soft, but quite beautiful song for Pritam. Listen to the song. I can tell you’ll love it more every time.

The next is Pritam’s very own Neeraj Shridhar, singing Kya sunaun main kya bataun main. This time Neeraj gets a bit softer piece, (probably I’m comparing it to Mera Jeena hai kya) with some half English lines, quite typical of his. Definitely a good, quite likeable, and my guess is, addictive-to-be song, though not deep as the rest.

The next song is KK’s tujhi mein, quite a rock-ish number like many others Pritam has given to KK to sing, all of them good. The background beats of the song sound a bit nostalgic and from the very start of the song, I’m reminded of Gunaah’s Jab dil churaye koi, but frankly KK singing in the foreground is good enough to make me forget it.

The next song is a remix of Babu’s Chhalla, with a dhoom-dhoom-chik-chik. I wonder if the song has been added in the song early so as to make people not leave it and hear this one too. Well, not bad a remix. Liked it.

Next comes who was missing. Yeah, our very own Mohit Chauhan comes up to sing a very light tujhko jo paaya. A song with almost only guitar, a wonderful song, but the song seems so-very-heard. You know? Well, the song is the second track of the album, Mere Bina, sung by Mohit this time and with a different name. You may count it as unplugged, as it actually is unplugged, but then what would you call the Unplugged version of Mere Bina sung by KK. Golmaal hai bhai sab Golmaal hai. The only good thing is that the song sounds good for the second time too.

Next, KK starts a reprise version of Tujhi mein, but compared to the original, this version of Tujhi mein doesn’t sound all that good to me as I feel too many instruments have been added to the song and KK’s voice goes in kinda background, as much as that powerful a voice can go. Though, the pace of the song is seemingly a bit less which does add to the positive side. Still, for now I prefer the original one to reprise.

The next version of Tujhko jo paaya (credited Mere Bina this time) starts with some beautiful chords and I suddenly feel calm after the so-instrumented reprise of Tujhi mein. KK sings the so-called Unplugged version just awesomely and I once again fall in love with his voice, but at the same time, the song sounds repetitive as this is the third version of the song in the album. Yes, one song that makes 37.5% of this album. I think one of the versions should have been scrapped. Now don’t ask me which one, I may not be able to answer.

And that makes me say, Kudos to Nikhil D’Souza, for standing tall with established super singers like Mohit and KK.

Overall, the album is yet another in the ever-hit series of Pritam-Emraan Hashmi and will make no exception. With 8 tracks, which are actually just four songs, the album is not too big, but almost all the songs are good. Pritam has again gone for his tried and tested formulae, even though he has done tiny little experiments with his singers, and got quite good an album. Especially liked is Tujhko jo paaya/Mere Bina looks like something for short as well as long term.