Woah there!

When Sajid Nadiadwala declared Anjaana Anjaani as a musical, my reaction was "A peppy movie with Ranbir and Piggy Chops - romcom yes, but a *MUSICAL* romcom, uh I donno!" Trust Vishal Shekhar to prove the whole world wrong! After delivering crappium craptitude in the form of Aladin, they showed signs of a promising comeback with IHLS, which in itself was a pretty good album, but with AA, VS are truly back to where they belong! I know I said a few months back that I rarely do music reviews, but now that people like Amit Trivedi and VS have decided its a stupid rule, I cant help it can I! :)

Both the title tracks are as different as chalk and cheese, and yet they both have something in common - they are both  really really good! The softer version sung by Vishal and Shilpa Rao has a lilting tune and soft rock feel, which makes it saccharine sweet while the club number by noobs Nikil D' Souza and Monali is a true-blue foot-tapping, "oh-yeah" kinda song! Its difficult to miss their enthusiasm and when the singers have fun, so do we, the listeners! Simply rocking!

Lucky Ali is back and boy, did we miss him or what!!! Hairat is probably gonna be the song of the year when the sun sets on 2010 but lets hold our horses till we get there... To put it mildly, Hairat is one heck of a rollicking song - partly reminded me of Fakeera from Badmaash Company! With repeat hearings, this one grows on you like nobody's business! And once again, Lucky Ali FTW! \m/

Tumse Hi Tumse by Shekhar and Caralisa is refreshing albeit slightly been-there-done-that. The lead guitar sounds leading into the song make it totally delightful and inspite of the slightly 90-ish feel, its an amazing song that stays with you despite being part of such a rich album!

Tujhe Bhula Diya is a different take on sad songs and Shruti Pathak literally made me jump with her spirited Punju rendition that kick-starts the song...she's a delight! The qawalli-ese portions are good too, altho not very novel. Ultimately the ever-dependable Mohit Chauhan and Vishal ensure the song stays above the bar the other songs have set with their brilliant vocals! A beautiful number!

I Feel Good is good, in any other album it could have been one of the best numbers of that album, but simply because it stands amongst such celebrated tunes, it seems only above average! Not the songs' fault! Vishal sounds surprisingly like Shankar Mahadevan here tho, which is different - good or bad dunno, but I Feel (pretty) Good! :D

Aas Paas Khuda has melody and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan going for it, but it probably is the weakest link in the album. Not to say that it is a bad song, in fact far from that! Its one of the better Rahat songs of recent times but a feeling of deja vu lingers, and along with the banal "Tu na jane aas paas hai khuda" line, ensures the song doesnt rise above its merits...The unplugged version is much better IMO.

The promos did not get me as excited about this movie but now the music has. Read somewhere its partly inspired by Before Sunrise, and if this ones even 10% as good as that classic, we have a really good movie to look forward to this September! Well, even otherwise, we already have a great gift here from VS!