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Beatstreet

Jail
T-Series, CD

You certainly don’t expect soft rock when you think of something cold, real and mean as “Jail”. And considering film director Madhur Bhandarkar’s reputation for keeping it as authentic as it gets, I would expect some dark metallic stuff, with a good dose of edginess and angst in it. You’ll find none of that coming from music directors Shamir Tandon and Sharib-Toshi. (Sharib-Toshi are the Sabri brothers who made it big on TV talent hunts and debuted in Bollywood composing and singing in “Raaz…The Mystery Continues”). The line up of the entire album is simply too wimpy. It has two male crooning numbers and an item number, and a slow bhajan possibly thrown in for the redemption of the hero (and music makers).

Most of the tracks sound like a college rock scene. And that too so carbon-copied. Anyone who listened to Pritam’s path breaking music for “Life In a Metro…” with stars in their ears, will instantly see where the guitar work comes from, for the opening track “Sainya Ve”. One cannot also miss Himesh Reshammia’s nasal twang coming out from singer Toshi; perhaps a hangover of “Raaz…”

Sure, it’s a kind of catchy tune when it opens up. But the effect doesn’t last beyond a few seconds. The lyrics, by Sharib-Toshi are quite hackneyed — of the “meri dil chura le, meri jaan lele” variety. You’ll have to bear with it over and over again because there are three versions of the track, including a rock and remix do.

“Milke yun lagaa” does wonders in carrying singer Sharib’s voice to great heights and expanses. But it’s disturbingly familiar music. The nautanki-style “Bareily ke bazaar mein” — a predictably loud raunchy double entendre track is sung by Sonu Kakkar. Such a far cry from the teasing and naughty “Jhumka gira re, Bareily ke bazaar mein…” from the 1966 “Mera Saya” sung by Asha Bhonsle (yes, yes, that’s harking back too far off in the past but it’s an evergreen melody that can’t be forgotten). The music, by Bhandarkar favourite Shamir Tandon is standard fare.

And then there’s — surprise surprise — a devotional track from Lata Mangeshkar! They’ve got her on board after a quiet break. The story doing the rounds is that she did it for hero Neil Nitin Mukesh (grandson of the great playback singer Mukesh)’s sake. At 80 her voice still rises to highs that it did during her DDLJ days, almost 14 years ago! “Daata sun le” has nothing much going for it, except that it is the Latadidi singing. Music, again by Tandon, sounds like festival-time pandal orchestra; lyrics by Ajay Kumar Garg insipid.

But “Jail” touches a new nadir in the remix factory department — there’s a contemporary remix of a devotional song! Aren’t devotionals supposed to be ageless? But all that said, the remix actually sounds bafflingly better.

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