Rated

Music Directors: Sohail Sen and Sajid-Wajid

Label: YRF Music

Guest composers Sajid-Wajid open the innings with a very Middle-Eastern outing that is Mashallah. Wajid has also sung the song in conjunction with Shreya Ghoshal and one good feature of the song is that we now know that Shreya can sound Arabian if she wants to. There is nothing new or experimental here though it’s the massiest song of the lot. Full marks to the musical duo for that.

Now let’s jump to Sohail Sen’s compositions. Sohail wanted to sound different than Sajid-Wajid and hence starts off with a very Latin sounding Laapata. Now, you have heard this tune umpteen times before and so you want to know why Sohail was this lazy. Couldn’t the singers KK and Palak Muchhal (who gamely try to put some life in it) have pointed out the obvious to him?

Next comes Banjaara, belted out by Sukhwinder Singh. Sohail has included some interesting gypsy interludes. Nice banjo and violin work here. Saiyaara, sung by Mohit Chauhan and Taraannum Mallik is easily the find of the album. This love duet slowly picks up the crescendo and makes you hit the repeat button. Can’t make up my mind whether I heard rabab or santoor here. Whatever it is, it sounds nice. Good flute work too. Now why he can’t he keep this up in other compositions beats me.

The album has a nice sounding Tiger’s theme, an instrumental piece by Julius Packiam. There are also remixes of Mashallah, Laapata and Banjaara which are kind of okay. They certainly don’t add to the album.

We are used to pulsating music in Salman Khan starrers, so this album is a tad disappointing in that sense. The songs have a situational feel and let’s hope they look better on screen than they sound.

http://filmfare.com/reviews/music-review-ek-tha-tiger-981.html