Jungle

The tracks of Jungle subtly paint the picture of the movie to you. It opens with Pehi baar by Sonu Nigam and Sunidhi Chauhan. If Nigam and...

The tracks of Jungle subtly paint the picture of the movie to you. It opens with Pehi baar by Sonu Nigam and Sunidhi Chauhan. If Nigam and Chauhan continued singing Ruki ruki si zindagi from Mast, they would have ended up singing Pehli baar 8212; the same feel, the same pace, the same singers, even the same actress8230;. With this first track we know that the hero and the heroine have gone all dopey-eyed after giving each other the evil eye. Hota hai!

After all that, for whatever reasons, the couple are now in a jungle. Could it be honeymoon? Naah8230; don8217;t think so. Smart opportunity to include those two instrumental tracks: Racing the Jungle and The Soul of Jungle. Anyway, seeing those promos with Shetty running loose with a gun, it is evident that things are not going too well for this couple. And rightly so, we have proof with Do pyaar. The couple is lost. Kho gaya in jungle. Gulp!

Now you can visualise them walking and talking in the jungle, and I guess they would meet some tribal group and have a whale of a time singing Patli kamar. Cheapos of the world unite! We have a new anthem for us. Patli kamar almost brings back that ol8217; ambience of Pran and Premnath doing full justice do a Manna Dey-Kishore Kumar number. Good Stuff. And then8230;.

The couple are lost again! Someone obviously don8217;t know how to read the map. Jaan by Kumar Sanu and Chauhan sounds like a spoof on Jaane jaa from Jawani Diwani. Almost as if Randhir Kapoor and Jaya Bhaduri are tired of looking for each other, and the pace slows down to Jaan. Now that they8217;re lost again, I suppose only Sunil Shetty can help them get out. Good luck to both of them, because a screaming commando with a gun would not be my choice for a guide. No sir. Au contraire, I would remain lost from him.

I am trying to remember when was it that we first had an instrumental track on a Hindi movie album. Can only think of the mother of them all 8212; the theme music of Sholay. Before that we only had Hollywood with Lalo Schifrin and Ennio Morriconne going famous with Eastwood. After Sholay, I think we had Subhash Ghai running a trademark tune through each of his movies. Yash Chopra had his one trademark track of the heroine getting very angry in his movies, Mani Ratnam and A R Rahman gave us the theme music of Bombay, and then Mr Ramgopal Varma with Rangeela, Satya et all.

Chowta is no Bill Conti or James Horner, but he is one of us and his two tracks definitely stand on their feet. Jungle is a good effort. Varma has always given us good music, my personal favorite remains Drohi, and Jungle retains the tradition. It8217;s not earth-shattering, but good. Good music, good singing. Perhaps it could do with a little less of that nasal twang from Mr Sanu, and I8217;m really quite tired of going on about how well Nigam sings. Sonu, please sing badly the next time round so I can write something different for a change!

And the final mention goes to the hero of the album, lyricist Sameer with his excellent, simple and innovative lyrics. The pen is mightier than the tune.

Music: Sandeep Chowta. Lyrics: Sameer. Tapes/CDs: Universal Music