Today, every second album has music given by Pritam. Naqaab is one such album. Abbas-Mustaan are known to make interesting films, and while all of them might not be winners, they all tend of have excellent music. Even the not-so-interesting 36 China Town had a good soundtrack. Unfortunately, Naqaab does not follow suit. Why? Read on.
The album commences with Ek Din which has all the symptoms of a Pritam track. The diagnosis? The new singer Javed Ali is essentially a generic version of Zubeen Garg and despite the fact that he performs well, he doesn’t offer anything new to the world of music. The lyrics penned by Sameer are at the lowest level of mediocrity and, musically the song is monotonous. The same old sounds, tunes and instruments. The Remix of Ek Din appears later on the album and it’s only a slightly faster version of the original with repeated beats and rhythms. It doesn’t have what it takes to elevate the song.
The album deviates from the norm and one finds a remixed version of the song Ae Dil Pagal Mere before the original. It is sung but the now rarely heard Sonu Nigam, but sadly he seems to be lacking something. He basically screams most of words of the songs (You would too as they are so run-of-the-mill) and he is not his usual melodious self. The remixed version is once again just a faster version of the original. There is no difference in the singing but musically the original is preferable since the effective use of electric guitars compliment the song well. It also makes Sonu Nigam sound ten times better than he did in the remix and kind of reminds you of his pop-album numbers such as Deewana. Ae Dil Pagal Mere is repeated again as a remix but this time it’s Sunidhi Chauhaan behind the mike. One may wonder why this version is called a remix since the music of the song is the same as the original. It’s a bit painful for Sonu fans but it’s the truth. Sunidhi’s rendition of Ae Dil Pagal Mere outshines Sonu’s performance and her version is easily the best track of the album. She is clearly evolving into one of the best female singers of our time.
If Ek Din was supposed to be a worst of the Naqaab’s soundtrack, one hasn’t had the honour or more appropriately the horror of hearing Aa Dil Se Dil Mila Le. Sung by Krishna and Alisha Chinoy, this song is clearly not the rocking number it was set out to be. Musically the song has a combination of Western, Indian and Middle Eastern music while lyrically it’s a bit of a disaster as Sameer’s writing skills hit rock bottom of the mediocrity pit. The Remix of Aa Dil Se Dil Mila Le takes away the only good thing about the original, the music, hence making the song incapable of being listened to.
The album concludes with a situational theme track titled Disguised Intentions. It is a fast paced instrumental of Ae Dil Pagal Mere Dil with dramatic choir vocals. It’s too situational to be a good listen but would sound better when heard as background music in the movie.
If one thought that Speed was Pritam’s worst work, Naqaab has blown the competition wide open since there is now reason to believe that Pritam is capable of more drastically bad soundtracks. So the forecast for the musical world is to keep those ears well covered until the gloomy Pritam season passes away. That won’t be happening too soon since filmmakers keep on employing him. An appointment with an ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) specialist might be advised. Appalling.
