Vishal-Shekhar have their best year ever with Om Shanti Om and Cash being all-hit scores

Shantanu Moitra scores the melodic Laaga Chunari Mein Daag. Hum to aise hain bhaiyya (Sunidhi-Shreya-Swanand Kirkire-Pranab Biswas) and Kacchi kaliyan (Sonu-KK-Sunidhi-Shreya) are transiently popular, as is Zaraa gungunaale chalo (Babul-Mahalakshmi Iyer).

The score however fails to make the popular grade after the film takes a tumble. Chunari mein daag (Shubha Mudgal-Mita Vashisht) is a brilliant reworking of the vintage Roshan-Manna Dey song Laaga chunari mein daag (from the 1963 Dil Hi To Hai) that inspires the film’s title. Ehi thaiyaa motiyaa (Rekha Bhardwaj) and Ek teekhi teekhi si ladki (KK-Shreya) are pleasant numbers.

Shantanu composes just one song in Eklavya - The Royal Guard, Chanda re sung by Hamsika Iyer. The rest of the tracks are musical theme pieces with backing vocals by Sonu, Sunidhi, lyricist Swanand Kirkire, Pranab Biswas, Ravindra Sathe and Hamsika Iyer.

He also scores the remarkable Khoya Khoya Chand, with its fresh title-track sung by Swanand Kirkire and Ajay Jhingran. The standout tracks are O re paakhi (Sonu), Yeh nigahen (Sonu-Antara Choudhary, Salil Choudhary’s daughter), Khushboo sa (Hamsika Iyer) and Chale aao saiyyan (Shreya). Sakhi piya (Pranab Biswas-Shreya). But a combination of a ‘50s flavour, no ‘item’ song and the film’s fate at the box-office makes the situational score go unsung.

Vishal-Shekhar get into a creative upswing and have their best year ever. In ascending order, their four scores include Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. which has the hit song Sajnaji vaari vaari (Sunidhi-Shekhar), Halke halke (Neeraj Shridhar) and Pyar ki ek kahani suno (Sunidhi-Gayatri Ganjawala). Albela albela (Shankar-Vishal) is another interesting track.

Ta Ra Rum Pum sees twinkle-toed melodies like Ta ra rum pum (Shaan-Mahalakshmi-Sneha Suresh-Shravan Suresh), Tararararum tara rum pum (Shreya), Hey shona (Shaan-Sunidhi) and zingy rhythms like Ab to forever (Kk-Shreya-Vishal Dadlani) and Nachle ve (Sonu-Soumya Raoh).

But the standout song is Saaiyaan with Vishal Dadlani singing in Kailash Kher-mode. This LP-esque composition is impressively written in an Anand Bakshi-like tenor by Javed Akhtar.

Cash stands out for its rocking music with a huge dollop of fusion, club, rock and English phrases. Cash (Sunidhi-Vishal-Shekhar), Mind-blowing mahiya (Sunidhi) and Na pooncho (Sunidhi-Vishal) are all hits not just with the masses but on the pubs-and-clubs circuit. Rehem kare (Sunidhi-Vishal) and Naughty naughty (Anushka Manchanda) are also popular.

The score stands out for the male vocals completely dominated by composers Vishal and Shekhar. Vishal also doubles up as the lyricist of most of the tracks.

V-S’s biggest musical hit this year is Om Shanti Om. The reincarnation saga has a deliberate aura of Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s and Subhash Ghai’s Karz (a part-inspiration for the film’s story) with the song Dastaan-e-om shanti om (Shaan) being an open tribute in terms of situation and mood to the Karz climax song Ek hasina thi. Shaan sings the song in a deep, Kishore Kumar-like tone.

The retro song Dhoom tana (Abhijeet-Shreya) is arranged by Pyarelal but due credit is not given and a controversy results. Another area of friction results with the film’s most popular song Aankhon mein teri (KK) wherein Javed Akhtar’s lyrics are modified by Vishal himself and the lyricist refuses to take credit for the song.

The other songs, Dard-e-disco (Sukhwinder-Marianne-Nisha-Caralisa), Deewangee deewangee (Udit-Shaan-Sunidhi-Shreya-Rahul Saxena), Main agar kahoon (Sonu-Shreya) and Jag soona soona laage (Rahat Fateh Ali Khan-Richa Sharma) are all hits.

The stage is set for 2008 with far-reaching changes in place.

To be cont’d..