Kaal

Article Updated 15 March, 2005 10:40:22 AM IST

Kaal

Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar production and the expectations from 'Kaal' audio soar but once again the director is not Karan, rather its his assistant Soham Shah, like it was Nikhil Advani in 'Kal Ho Naa Ho'.

The album opens with the promotional track 'Tauba Tauba', being aired on the channels and features John, Vivek, Lara and Esha. Kunal Ganjawala starts the song with 'O Mahiya' and is soon joined by rap portions by Bob and Chorus. The song is a unique mix of rap, English and Punjabi lyrics with a final 'qawali topping' by Sonu Nigam. Sample the experience of English and Punjabi ' Feel the fire, My desire, Take me higher, Soniye' and 'Tauba tauba, Ishq main kariyan'. The 'qawali' angle by Sonu adds new dimension and he is as good as he was in the ‘Main Hoon Na’ western ’qawali’ version! Ganjawala, Richa Sharma (after a long gap), Sunidhi and Bob and Chorus put their hearts and souls into the sure shot chartbuster with brilliant orchestra arrangements.

'Kaal Dhamaal', the number that will come during the casting of 'Kaal' and has been picturised on Shah Rukh and Malaika Arora (once again after 'Dil Se') goes, 'Is kaal kaal mein hum tum karein dhamaal'. The arrangements are quite similar in nature to 'Tauba Tauba', except for the 'qawali' angle with 'Tabla' beats. The vocals of Kunal Ganjawala, Ravi 'Rags' Khote, Caralisa and Salim are top notch. One does feel that the lyrics could have been better and more consistent though. 'Kaal Dhamaal’ is another track that is bound to get popular especially after the promo is aired.

Next up is 'Nasha Nasha', which has music and lyrics by Anand Raj Anand that start with 'What's 'Nasha'? Its the one in Punjabi' and later on the lyrics are 'Zindagi daud hai, Daud hai zindagi'. What is interesting is that Sunidhi sings in the same mould as she did for the title track of 'Bhoot', composed by the other composers of 'Kaal', Salim-Suleiman. The singing by Sonu and Sunidhi is adequate but the song is nothing to write home about.

'Ankhiyan Teriya Ve' has lyrics by Kailash Kher and starts off (musically) like 'Mundian tu bach ke rahi ' by Punjabi MC from 'Boom'. Not to be left behind, Kailash Kher tries to sing in the Sufi-pop style of the Late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan but pales in comparison. If one can ignore the above two items, the track is faced paced with good percussion arrangements and later incorporates portions 'Eye of the tiger' (perhaps due to the theme of the movie). All in all, a decent time passing number.

Moving on to the 'Friction Remix' of 'Kaal Dhamaal', which was engineered and remixed by Bobby Friction and The Infinite Scale. It’s called 'Kaal Dhamaal - The Tiger Remix'. The problem with this remix is that the vocals are barely audible, so it doesn’t capture the plus points of the 'Kaal Dhamaal' track.

The 'Jungle Mix' featuring Caralisa, Vijay Prakash and Jeanne can be termed as the erotic-desirous dance number that has a spooky jungle feeling to it. Indeed, at a later stage it does become a jungle song with lots of drum and bongo beats and eerie shrieks thrown in, with a liberal dose of 'Africana' and 'Zulu' dialect, if not the language.

The album also features a 'Dharma Mix', which is a medley of super hit songs from 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai', 'K3G', and 'Kal Ho Naa Ho'. So sit back and enjoy 'Mahi Ve', 'Bole Chudiyan', 'Shava Shava', 'Koi Mil Gaya ' and rounding off once again with 'Mahi Ve', and 'Pretty Woman'. One gets a feeling that the tempos for all the songs except for 'Mahi Ve and Pretty Woman' are a tad on the faster side.

On the whole, 'Kaal' may not find favour with the critics but is definitely in sync with the movie and given the extreme curiosity that 'Tauba Tauba' has been generating, the songs will definitely break into the top 5 pretty soon. It’s worth buying, especially for the younger audience.

Rating: 7.5/10

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