After the musical success of Dus, the winning combination of Anubhav Sinha and Vishal-Shekhar are back with Cash. This time around, they have ditched Abhishek Bachan for Ritiesh Deshmukh, Sanjay Dutt with Ajay Devgan and replaced Shilpa Shetty with her sister Shamita. Cash is no Dus but it is certainly the knight in shining armour for the villains of bad of music that have been racking havoc on the music industry.
The album kick starts with Cash rendered by Sunidhi Chauhan and the partners in crime Vishal-Shekar. They might not bring the house down like Shaan and K.K in Dus Bahane but it’s quite an up-beat track that has musical stylings that resembles the Black Eyed Peas’ Pump It. The song has Hinglish lyrics with tunes ranging from mellow Indian ones to hip hop tunes. It definitely has all the signs of a hyped up promotional numbers and is doing well will the explosive trailors of Cash airing everywhere. Sunidhi slips into different styles of singing efficiently. One minute she has a sultry feel to her voice, next minute it changes to sweet and melodious and thirdly she surprises all with a bit of rapping. An extended version of this song is found at the end of the album.
After Pritam’s Mahiya in Awarapan, Vishal-Shekar have come up with Mind Blowing Mahiya which is sung by Sunidhi Chauhan. The lyrics once again are typical Hinglish and the music is very up-beat and fast paced. The intro music sounds oddly like the theme song from Disney’s Kim Possible but otherwise it’s a rather catchy number and has you nodding your heads to it in no time. Sunidhi renders the song with utmost enthusiasm and subtly reminds you a lot of Crazy Kiya Re.
Naa Pucho, is the 3rd track in album, and is sung by Sunidhi and Vishal. The song’s first impression is not a good one because of the unconventional chorus and repetition of the words ‘naa pucho’ four times does not sound right. However the later portions of the song are pretty good. This time the lyrics are entirely Hindi, and while they are the usual average item number lines, the words seem to blend well with the music which has a slight desi tinge despite being almost contemporary. Once again Sunidhi is the crux of the song. Naa Pucho definitely would not be worth listening to if she wasn’t singing it.
Sunidhi is back again with Rahem Kare. Vishal-Shekar slow down a bit and have made Rahem Kare a moderately paced number. The song start beautifully with a melodious tune excellently rendered by Sunidhi and is followed by hip-hop-y English lyrics. However the later portions of the song are a bit of a let-down to what started off has an above-average song. The tunes used for the middle verse are too loud and don’t match up with the rest of the song.
Sunidhi takes a break as Anushka Machanda takes hold of the mike in Naughty Naughty which can be effectively described (for lack of a better word) as a ‘naughty’ number. The lyrics might not be that sophisticated but the music is definitely a winner. It’s a clever mix of hyped up desi sounds with a Punjabi touch and modern musical arrangements. Anushka Machanda wows again after her rocking debut in Golmaal.
The album draws to a close with Zara Bach Jee which is sung by Vishal-Shekar and Anuska Machanda. The music boasts of funky tunes mixed in a few desi sounds and has Hindi, Punjabi, and English lyrics. Vishal, Shekhar and Anushka do a great job and really bring out what the movie is all about: action-adventure-thrills.
All in all Cash is an above average album. The songs might not be lyrically excellent but the roaring, hyped up music compensates for it. Dus was somewhat of a musical masterpiece of the 21st century and definitely one of the best works of Vishal-Shekar. It’s nice to see Vishal-Shekar not being caught up in the past and making clones of their prior successes. These guys always have something new and interesting to add to Indian music. Cash is one such contribution. It’s a highly enjoyable album that will definitely be well-liked by music-lovers.
