After a horrendous Kyun! Ho Gaya Naa few years ago, director Samir Karnik has returned with his latest offering titled Nanhe Jaisalmer. Interestingly enough, it stars Bobby Deol playing himself along with child artist Dwij Yadav in a lead role. Taking control of the music is none other than, yes, you guessed it, Himesh Reshammiya (by the way, does he ever sleep?). Naturally, he teams up with lyricist Sameer for the umpteenth time for this album. So does Reshammiya come up with something different this time or is he continuing to churn out the same type of tunes? Let’s take a look.
Surprisingly, the first track does not see Himesh behind the microphone. Instead there is the melodious Sonu Nigam who solely handles the title track Nanhe Yaar. This number relies completely on melody to leave a mark and definitely manages to please the ear. It seems that whenever Sonu teams up with Himesh, the track is a winner (title track in Apne). Sameer’s lyrics are very well written as well, and this track reminds us that Himesh is definitely a gifted composer. Make sure you savor this track, because it only goes downhill from here.
And so the inevitable occurs; the notorious Himesh Reshammiya has decided to grace us with his beautiful vocals in Ulfat. After a great first track, this is a complete let-down and doesn’t even do justice to the talent Himesh possesses. It attempts at being a soft rock number of sorts, but fails miserably. Not worth listening to! The Remix is decent because of its club beats but doesn’t really enhance or take away from the song.
Kesariya is exciting because we see Vinit, who is slowly making a mark in the music industry, team up with Jayesh Gandhi. This one has airs of a folksy song and is definitely a risky, yet interesting, composition. Both Jayesh Gandhi and Vinit provide wonderful vocals and prove their range as singers. Keep in mind that this is not one for the masses but will appeal to a certain niche of listeners. Different!
Reshammiya returns with Ranjhna and brings his signature style along with him. It’s definitely an improvement from Ulfat but still falls short of being anything special. It’s listenable, but not memorable. The remix version completely drowns out the vocals and leaves you wondering what was the need for a remix anyway. It seems like composers these days formulate remixes for absolutely no reason!
The final track, Lamha Lamha, is a duet between Himesh and Sunidhi Chauhan. Again, it’s a different composition from Himesh and is intriguing for this reason only. It might work well in the film, but alone, it’s not worth mentioning in terms of vocals or music. Naturally, there is a remix for this track as well which is horrendous and once again, purposeless.
After listening to this album, you really wonder what Himesh was thinking. It seems as if he was caught in between being experimental and his typical tracks. The result is an album that is all over the place, with only the title track emerging even remotely interesting. Himesh bhai, what happened?
