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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.

Aadat se majboor has some experimental sounds with the regular Salim-Sulaiman pop pattern. The tune is catchy and the song sounds quite nice. Easy on ears. Salim-Sulaiman-Benny-YRF is a success again.

The next, Jazbaa sung by Shilpa Rao, has some nice lyrics and Salim-Sulaiman give some simple sounding music for this one, though the choice of instruments doesn’t sound that simple if you listen with attention. Salim’s backing vocals might remind you of Fashion or any other of their songs as well. Still, the song is overall a nice one and the hardwork the composers have put in is clearly audible.

Vishal Dadlani and Shweta Pandit’s poppy Thug le has a bit too simple tune in some parts, and even though the song is made to be catchy, I didn’t feel the song would last long. The lyrics aren’t Amitabh’s best either. Okay.

Salim finally enters with a full-fledged song called Jigar da Tukda, sung with Shradhha Pandit. The Punjabi song with a lot of pop in it, Jigar da tukda is interesting and should be a hit considering the amount of publicity YRF would give it.

Fatal Attraction, the theme, which has Salim in it with an unknown female voice which sounded like Sunidhi Chauhan’s at some points, and which hit me like Marjaava at 1.58 mins, is okay. The remix of Aadat se Majboor sounded nice too, though didn’t like Jazbaa remix much.

Frankly, in Ladies v/s Ricky Bahl, Salim-Sulaiman seem to have tried to do something more than their regular even though staying in their favorite region. So there is something new, a little new sound, but still the signature of Salim-Sulaiman is there. I’d say nice, because the album is definitely good, but yeah, I am still waiting for the duo to be less techno and rely more on melody some time, like they did earlier, in Dor and Aaja Nachle. Hope they’ll come up with something ‘that’ nice too.

Dhaeon Dhaeon sung by Vishal Dadlani and Aditi Singh Sharma is addictive, and still it’s not what you call come n go. Nice.

Ash King and Shilpa Rao’s Uh-oh-uh-oh kya hua is something to love. The music, especially the orchestration of the song sounds quite simple, but I don’t think many people can do it this nicely. Beautiful job by the composer, as well as both the singers. DO listen.

Six seconds into the next song ‘Baatein shuru‘ and I was impressed anyway. With the music of course. And then, the way Raghu Dixit uses Shefali Alvaris’ different voice, it’s really nice. Joi Barua probably for the first time gets to sing a Bollywood song in his raw voice. I mean he has mostly worked with Amit Trivedi for individual songs, or even otherwise you mostly get his voice with a lot of background music, but here it’s different. The song, too, is interesting, with light music and a melody that keeps changing. Nice, different.

Suraj Jagan’s solo Chhoo le is actual rock stuff. And though I never considered myself an actual rock fan in the least, I quite liked the song. Suraj goes up, down, and is almost ready to burst at some points, and still manages to sound good. Tough job for sure. All I can say is that he rocks in this one.

Har Saans mein from the first note reminds me of Hey Bhagwan. And then I realize that Raghu Dixit comes up with an old track of RDP, from 2007 I guess. But then, the song would be new for many fans of Bollywood. And is still as good as anything to listen to. Ths one’s pure awesomeness from that master.

Overall, Mujhse Fraandship Kaorge is an album full of freshness. In fact I guess Dhaeon Dhaeon that is already in market, is the most ‘typical’ song of the album. Rest of the album will be much better I suppose.

The album starts with Chhammak Chhallo, about which I don’t think I need to write much as the song has been there for long now. The only two things I’d say are, one, Akon’s pronunciation of Hindi words is quite impressive, and two, love the song or hate it, it’s addictive. Highly so.

The second song, Dildara Dildara, based on Ben King’s Stand by me, is nice. Shafqat’s rendition of the song makes it a regular but very much lovable song. May sound templated on Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s patterns, but it’s great to listen to anyway.

The third track, Criminal, sung by Akon again, with Shruti Pathak and Vishal Dadlani, is addictive as papappap, as well as dhinna dhinna. Addictive again, though the album seems to be getting a bit repetitive here.

And so, there comes, bhare naina, sung by Nandini Srikar, for a much required break. The song, which is a nice composition and goes mostly on Nandini’s vocals supported by Tabla in the beginning, gets a bit into Jogi Mahi’s ‘dil thame hue’ mode, but surprises with English lyrics in that background. Interesting for sure. But either way, it’s Nandini’s song who beats almost anything else with the rendition of this soulful tune.

Sid Coutto’s Right by your side seems like yet another repeat of jaane kyun dil chahta hai in the beginning, but then turns away a little and comes up a not-so-fresh, but a lovely and a little addictive number. Nice, but I feel that Vishal-Shekhar probably could do a little more different.

Raftaarein credited to Vishal and Shekhar deliberately reminds you of ‘Duniya mein logon ko,’ and then turns into a full fledged background song for the superhero. Not really a musical thing to listen to until the video comes, but I hope the song would get much more meaning with the movie.

The last ‘song’ Jiya mora ghabraaye brings the much searched-for name of Sukhwinder Singh (at least for me, in Vishal-Shekhar and Vishal Bharadwaj’s albums especially) and while his singing is as impeccable as ever, I do not know how many of fans would like the more of music, a little rap and more of alaap by Sukhwinder. Not upto the mark for me.

As far as the themes are concerned, didn’t find anything too attractive in Comes the Light, while IM On looks like good ringtone material because people are already familiar with the track as background theme. Song of the end is effective, though it sounds like a typical ‘end’ tune of movies, a little older ones I’d say.

Chhammak Chhallo’s Club mix is quite nice and likable while the Punjabi mix does not seem too different from the original once Akon starts singing. Criminal’s remix is so very very typical Akon. In the Chhammak Chhallo international version, there was not much difference, except that I couldn’t find Shruti Pathak there. The ‘remix’ after so much is strictly for dance floors.

Overall, Ra.One is not something usual. If you’re looking for a regular, nice album with melodious numbers from Vishal-Shekhar, you may be in for a disappointment. But then I don’t think that was the aim of the album or the movie from the very start. It’s more of an experiment with at least some amount of English in every song, even the very Indian bhare naina. And as an experiment, I think it’s quite successful, as many of the songs are definitely going to be addictive, and hence popular.

Sukhwinder’s Dabba has some trying-to-do-a-Gulzar lyrics and while the lyricist Amole Gupte gets some on and off success, the overall effect of music, lyrics, and Sukhwinder’s singing is quite likeable. The innocence in Sukhi’s voice once again tells you how that man of hiiiiighhhhh notes can be humble with his voice too. Nice.

The next comes Nanhi si jaan, a light rock number sung by Shankar Mahadevan with a melody that sounds somewhat like that of the ’90s to me. Still, Shankar makes the song worthwhile to an extent. And then, after listening to the entire album, I expect that the song will find its place as the movie comes up. Hopefully.

The next song, Tere andar bhi kahin, is sung by Vishal Dadlani. The song is a light rock number again, but this one is quite different in its treatment and words take precedence over everything in this one. Somehow Vishal’s voice seems to be doing justice to the poetry in this one. Not too ‘musical,’ but it’s lovely and I expect the movie will make this one a favorite.

The next song, the only one in the album with a female voice, Jhoola Jhool by Hamsika Iyer is a short lullaby that sounds lovely if you’re patient enough. A small piece of good work by Hitesh.

The next small piece, Aditya rox, a version of tere andar bhi kahin, is not really very musical, but I liked it nonetheless. Though I don’t think I’ll be listening much to this one.

The last piece of the album is an instrumental which makes me feel once again that Amole Gupte is not yet out of Taare Zameen Par as ‘Thirsty‘ or Stanley Theme definitely more or less reminds you of Kholo Kholo darwaze more than anything. And then of course, going back to the first song may prove that Amole is at least trying to give people an idea that it’s something, in some way, close to or related to TZP.

Still, the overall impact of the album is good. The music is fresh and Amole’s lyrics definitely speak for his movie only. The good part is that even though you can relate the music to the children’s movie, you can enjoy it anyway, something I’d consider a huge achievement for a debutant album composer in Bollywood.

The album starts with Vishal Dadlani’s It’s a game. While the song is not an instant thing, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s arrangements with a hangover of Karthik Calling Karthik make Vishal’s good singing work to some extent. You may like it if you pay some attention.

The reprise version sung by Sunitha Sarath seems dull, probably because the voice lacks the life that Vishal has in his voice.

Kaun hai Ajnabi has some lovely vocals by KK and Aditi Singh Sharma, but the song sounds more of a Pritam number than SEL’s. Not bad, though nothing great. Interestingly, the remix of the song works equally good.

Maine ye kab socha tha is a different side of the album where Shaan comes up to sing a romantic number with Anusha Mani, supported by Loy and almost a chorus, something like in We are Family. Though the song is quite good in parts, it doesn’t really sound like one song in whole and that may be a reason for its failure.

The last original number, Mehki Mehki, sung by Shreya Ghoshal and Kshitij, is a different sound and almost enters the territory of A R Rahman. At some points I just felt like I have heard the song, but it was probably just the ambiance and hence I couldn’t point towards any song. With a slight touch of old Bollywood songs of maybe ’70s and all these new mentioned things, Mehki Mehki is definitely something worth a try. Listen to it and probably you will fall for it in due time.

As for the remix of Mehki Mehki, it’s not bad, but the song loses the beautiful arrangements that existed in the original version and made the soul of the song, so nothing much to listen to here.

Overall, Game is an okay album but if you’re thinking of buying the album just because you know Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and you know their standard, you may be in for a little disappointment.

The next, Kyun Main Jaagoon by Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan maybe a bit too slow for loving it the first time, but as you listen to it, you love it more and more. A beautiful track with the background music that slowly grows inside the track. The unplugged version of the song is equally good. Oh, pain in Shafaqat’s voice sounds so very natural in here.

Mehndi vi mehndi, mehndi vi mehndi. Gaadha rang je chadhiya te balle ve balle. I am reminded of Kal ho naa ho. And then of Ajab Prem ki Gazab Kahani as Hard Kaur comes in, and then Shankar Mahadevan sounds all in mad-dance mode. Well, the song sounds a bit broken at the start, but once you’re used to it, the song is definitely gonna rock you. Raula pai gaya. Raula pai gaya. Dil se gaya. Raula pai gaya.

Khwabon ke lifafon mein, kisson mein kitabon mein, Vishal Dadlani sings aadat hai woh in his soft-husky voice. Well, I was surprised quite pleasantly, but a bit confused too as to why Vishal was singing this, and then when I heard usko banane wala kuch kuch to behka hoga, I knew Vishal was the perfect singer for the song. Lovely music, superb lyrics, deep singing. Woh aadat hai is a song with some poetry. I loved it, probably the most in the album, almost as much as Kyun Main Jaagoon. Do listen.

Baby when you talk to me is one more song in the Bollywood rock. This one is sung by Suraj and the way he sings it, it reminds me of Sadka kiya, though the song is not much like that one. Simple tune, and very instantly likable.

The next song, Tumba Tumba tudak gaya, is a kinda slow Punjabi-mixed dance number which stands out for its simplicity. Hans Raj Hans does a beautiful job at this one. The song may not be the best thing when you listen to it the first time, but slowly it takes up its space in your head. Also, have hopes from the video of the video.

Kailash Kher. Richa Sharma. OK. Kailash isn’t here this time, but Richa Sharma sings the mukhda of the bhajan Kailash sang for Road to Sangam. Aval Allah. A small track for the background. Not the full bhajan though, sadly.

The next thing is the remix of kyun main jaagoon. I’m not much into remixes, but quite loved this one. Try once even if you don’t listen to remixes.

The last, baby when you talk to me remix isn’t bad either, probably because there are no huge changes made in the song and speed seems to be the same.

Oh, forgot Raula pai gaya remix. Totally enjoying it.

Overall, Patiala House may not be among the best of Shankar Ehsaan Loy, but like most of their albums, the album has some freshness, and some good ol’ things. To say the least, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, once again, don’t disappoint.

One. Rock your stereo and include/forget your neighbours.
Two. Fit your earphones well and turn the volume up.

Either way, Dilli rocks. The same deep pain that was there in some songs of Dev.D, has finally come back in Dilli. And while Amit Trivedi’s music is nothing less than awesome, Amitabh Bhaattacharya touches the emotions in very few words. If there is anything missing in the song, move to the hardcore version. * evil smile *

The second song, Aetbaar, brings Bollywood’s rockstar Vishal Dadlani with Amit Trivedi and the result is rocking. Wait, I’m using the word again. No, can’t help. This is a second rocking song in a row. The Sufi touch in ‘dil aetbaar karke ro raha hai’ with Vishal’s very rock singing is worth a praise. Lovable song, and particularly good lyrics by Amitabh.

The next song, Yeh Pal, is a solo by Shilpa Rao where she simply sings Amitabh Bhattacharya’s deep lyrics to a very light music, almost like a poem. While the second half of the same song is an instrumental with Aetbaar visible there. Good, though not catchy and so, may take its own time.

The next song is a very experimental Aali re, which is probably what may be an ‘Amit Trivedi Item Song.’ The song seems to have a Mumbaiyya soul, at least the title ‘aali re’ made me feel so. But with the lines ‘patloon mein junoon hai’ the song almost talks of Delhi too. OK. Don’t take an offence Delhi people. I just mean the not-so-minded-language of the place. Nice experiment, but not a great song. And no, this is Not Motumaster.

And then, there is Dua.

A beautiful voice, that of Meenal Jain, comes up to sing some words after a very light music and then a chorus, sorry, Joi, Raman and Amitabh join in to sing Sab sajde mein, sajde mein, sajde mein, dua karo, with Amit Trivedi turning the song into an anthem-ish style with that chorus and those army band style beats. Not exactly fresh, but effective nevertheless.

So overall, No One Killed Jessica is Good, and has things that you would like to have in an Amit Trivedi album, but then, beyond Dilli and Aetbaar, songs aren’t that fresh, and Aali re sounds like a failure at least for now. Still, will like to see how the song turns out with the video and more listening that is going to be there. So if you have hight hopes, you may be disappointed.

My say, buy the album for Dilli, its hardcore version and Aetbaar. And you will have two songs in bonus, even if you don’t count one. Dilli is the way to go, Sir Trivedi.

The album starts with a very Characteristic title song that very much identifies itself with the movie, as the movie is supposed to be on a person who steals money from biggies, something similar happens with the song, which copies music from here and there and just puts it here. Quite a bogus thing from Shirish Kunder, where the only thing worth knowing is that Sonu Nigam is all the voices in the song.

Now, Vishal-Shekhar come into the picture, or Sound, to be more precise. The first song is Sheila ki Jawani, sung by Sunidhi Chauhan and supported by Vishal Dadlani. Now the song is not a typical item number with all desi moves as the title may suggest, but it’s an item number with a fake-spohisticated touch, but sounds fine as the fakeness is deliberate. The good thing is that Vishal-Shekhar know what they are doing. Vishal sounds good in his few lines. Okay as of now, should be very likeable in the video.

Wallah re Wallah, which also features Saregemapa’s Kamal Khan among its many singers, is a highlight of the album. A qawwali with some okay lyrics and well-made music is worth listening to. In fact for keeping the qawwali sound good even with all those added beats should have been something not really easy for the composers. Good work there. Makes for a good listen and I guess would make a perfect thing with a jazzy video showing Salman Khan. The wallah wallah part can prove addictive while the rest of the song goes good on melody. Expect the song to be a rage if the video comes out good. Should be.

Badey Dilwala, the next, is a Dabangg Omkara thing with an added comic mood, trying to make things sound a bit different from the two songs and kind of succeeding. But then Sukhwinder Singh singing the song again makes you think about Dabangg and Omkara, can’t help it. Sukhwinder though sounds more like in a Dil-haara form. Some very interesting lyrics add to the interest and popularity quotients of the song.

The fifth n last song of the album, fourth by V-S, is Happy Ending, a song with some beautiful chorus and some lovely plus slightly comic lyrics. The best part of the lyrics is the honesty of them and Vishal-Shekhar somehow are really good at sounding honest, right from the time they created Tu Ashiqui Hai, not comparing the two songs at all, at the same time. The song starts with something that gives you a feel you’re going to get a ‘chaand taare tod laaun (Yes Boss)’ and then moves on to get you something more comic than what you probably, still not disappointing. Also, with Prajakta Shukre, Harshit Saxena, Abhijeet Sawant and Debojit singing the song, I somehow got an Indian Idol feel in the song, but I cannot say if that was just a figment of my own imagination. O yeah, I know Harshit was in VoI, but then majority counts.

Overall Tees Maar Khan is not a musical thing to be precise, but then the music is fine and very much in sync with the movie that Tees Maar Khan is expected to be. What you might miss in this one after Om Shanti Om is just a Ajab si ajab si adaayein. Jag Soona Soona Laage was not meant to be a part of Tees Maar Khan anyway I guess.

As of now, what I loved the most, a bit surprisingly for myself, is ‘Happy Ending.’

Let Down: Tees Maar Khan title. I think the title theme should have been given to V-S. They can prove pretty good at such things. Doesn’t the Golmaal theme say so?