AUDIOSCAN
Gulzar at his best

Kab Aate Ho
(Times Music)

There is an unmistakable velvety feel to almost every word that flows out of Gulzar’s pen. Even when he contributes an out and out commercial film song like Kajrare kajrare`85 and says ankhen bhi kamaal karti hain, personal se sawal karti hain, the mastery shines through.

And when he is in a literary mood, it is pure ecstasy. This album belongs to that category. Included are some new and some previously heard poems, most of which have been recited by Gulzar himself.

He has tried this experiment before, with great success. Free-verse poems get a new meaning when he reads them in his baritone voice. Many of them have been set to music as well.

In between, there are poems sung mostly by Jagjit Singh and Bhupendra. These have been heard before too but that does not deprive them of their freshness.

The album presents Gulzar in a new light, which is flattering all the way.

Anand Milind may not always come up with chartbusting numbers but there is always a lilting softness about their creations which makes listening to them a pleasure. At a time when many composers are taking recourse to loud orchestration, they still swear by minimal music, a quality which sets them apart.

A more noticeable feature of their score is that their films do not have too many songs. This may have more to do with the producers for whom they work, but still the few songs they have are better crafted than the average fare.

In Souten, they take this trait a step further. There are only four songs. It is just that two of them also have version numbers, making it six in all but for all practical purposes, the number is four.

The only solo is Kuchh dard in the voice of Sunidhi Chauhan. It figures later as a duet where Abhijeet gives her company. It is the former which is more polished.

Souten souten is sung in both versions by Sunidhi Chauhan and Richa Sharma. It is faster than the other number but not in the same league.

Romance drips out of Barsaat hai (Alka Yagnik and Udit Narayan) and Mohabbat ho gayee (Alka Yagnik and Sonu Nigam). Lyrics are by Praveen Bhardwaj.

— ASC