Hawa sun' sung by Sonu Nigam and Alka Yagnik is similar to Udhaya of "Udhaya" and, though soft, carries a heard-before feel. 'Gumsum' (again the same duo) is more like a rework of "Sivaji's" Vaaji. 'Gulfisha' (Nigam and Sunidhi Chauhan) is a typical Sunidhi song, butyou don't need a Rahman for this. 'Maherbaan', sung by the big man himself, is good, but the tune being that of "Pray for me brother" does irk you. 'Tu mera' (Chitra and Sukhwinder Singh) seems to have been inspired by Varugirai of "Anbe Aruyire". 'Hai dardh' (Udit Narayanan) is not a great effort but takes you along thanks to the singer.
The pick of the album is 'Ishq ada' (female version by Parul Mishra and the male by Rashid Ali). Rahman proves his talent in blending Sufi and western music. 'Muje milo' (Alka Yagnik and Jayachandran) is inspired by Kannathil Muthamittal, which took off from a R.D.Burman number. Rahman always hides his inspirations by rendering the notes in high pitch, this time it hasn't worked. Thanks to uncertainty over the album's release, these songs have been under covers for four years and so Rahman had every right to use these numbers elsewhere. But ARR fans don't want repetition. Rahman's interest over Devi Sri Prasad's music shows in 'Kabhi Kabhi '(Rashid Ali), a reworking of Apudo Ipudo of "Bommarilu". 'Pappu can't dance' (Blaze, Aslam, Tanvi, Anupama, Benny, Tanvi, Darshana, Satish) sure makes your feet move but the tune and instruments aren't fresh. More like a Shankar-Eshan-Loy remix. 'Nazarein milana' (Swetha, Naresh and Satish) has great use of vocals blended with guitar. But the resemblance to Yuhi chala of "Swades" hampers your interest. 'Tu Bole' (Rahman himself) has a feel of the 1970s jazz but since the same feel and instrument arrangement were used in in "Silunu Oru Kadhal" and "Iruvar", there isn't much new here. 'Kahin To' (Rashid Ali, Vasundhara Das) is definitely the pick of the album. The sadder version of 'Jaane Tu' (Sukhwinder Singh) doesn't bore you mainly due to Sukhwinder. The violin bit is again the heard-before variety, this time from Uyire in "Bombay". It could have been a great album had Rahman shown more innovation. http://www.go-nxg.com/?p=956 -- regards, Vithur HELP EVER; HURT NEVER; LOVE ALL; SERVE ALL
