Tashan - Vishal Shekar

I am not a big fan of Vishal-Shekar’s music. I have always felt that their music has been grossly overrated. Despite giving many hit numbers and showing their talent in few songs, I feel that something lacks in their music, the one that makes a listener to eagerly wait for the composer’s next soundtrack release. They are yet to establish a unique style of their own or at least I haven’t noticed any so far. Yet I feel that they have it in them, but no filmmaker has brought it out completely. I liked their ‘Jhankaar Beats’ very much but after that none of the soundtracks of Vishal-Shekar could be called complete. Though ‘Om Shanti Om’ was a big hit and had a variety of songs, I don’t think those songs would have become such a big hit if it were composed for a not so well marketed movie. BUT…

Vishal-Shekar hits bull’s eyes with ‘Tashan’. The soundtrack with an eclectic mix of wide variety of musical genres in all the songs is a sure shot winner and a rocker all the way. Ofcourse, it is heavy on rhythms, hooks and there is too much of fusion, but amidst all of that, the melody in intact and Vishal-Shekar has cleverly concentrated on the melody part which is packaged so well with clever arrangements and varied sounds. Only concern is that (or this could be a compliment too), the music sounds too SELish to me.

Om Shanthi Om soundtrack

In the soundtrack of ‘Om Shanti Om’, Farah Khan’s music sensibilities are on display more than that of Vishal-Shekar’s. The feel and the kind of music is exactly how ‘Main Hoon Na’ was, with full of predictable masala but nevertheless enjoyable. As the script travels through different periods of Hindi cinema, there are heavy influences of R.D.Burman, Lakshmikanth-Pyarelal and Jatin-Lalit kind of music in most of the songs; in fact one of the songs is arranged by Pyarelal. Lyrics penned by Javed Akthar and Shekar.

>‘Ajab Si’ is obviously the best song of the soundtrack in all aspects. It has a very simple melody oozing with romanticism. The minimal orchestration with mild beats, strings and flute add up to give a feel of floating in the air out of ecstasy. KK is brilliant in the song giving right emotional touches all through.

‘Dard-E-Disco’ is that typical catchy bollywood number which goes totally Arabic in its orchestration and arrangements and to add to the euphoria, we have energetic vocals of Sukhwinder singh.

‘Deewangi’ sounds like a poor Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s composition. The format of the song, instrumentation, the build up to the English parts and the English lines are all like how it would be in a SEL’s dance number. But it doesn’t work because of the lack of good melody. The synth motif is good though.

‘Main Agar kahoon’ is a sweet romantic ballad with Sonu and Shreya giving their usual romantic touches. The melody takes time to sink in. The pleasant strings and the breezy orchestration evokes nostalgic. The song is likeable mainly because it comes in between other average numbers heavy on beats.

The melody of first few lines of ‘Jag soona soona lage’ is actually good and especially that synth motif in the background has the necessary feel. The song soon becomes very painful and boring as it proceeds further with lines lacking an emotive melody.

‘Dhoom Taana’ is very enjoyable because it faithfully replicates the sound of early 90’s festive songs. The dholaks, drums, Shehnai, motif like ‘Dhoom taana’, sudden shift from dholaks to rock and roll beats and the final percussive crescendo are all quintessential elements of a festive song in early 90’s Hindi cinema and everything is there in this song.

‘Daastan’ starts promisingly with an orchestral piece and the problem arises when a flat vocal melody begins. The Bollywoodish vocal melody and the intermittent operatic outbursts don’t gel well and what we get at the end is a totally confused mesh. Even the vocal version of the main theme melody of the movie is spoiled by change in tempo and amateur beats. Just skip this track.

‘Om Shanti Om Theme’ is a pleasant piano melody which is used in almost all the songs of the soundtrack.

Except for two songs, I enjoy listening to this just-okay soundtrack because I didn’t expect much from it. Vishal-Shekar didn’t strive hard to strike any balance between their influences and their own style of music which makes the songs so predictable. But Farah khan would make these songs enjoyable on screen with her dazzling choreography. Let us wait and watch.