Mangal Pandey
It was one album everyone had pinned great hopes on but sadly it failed to live up to the hype. For once AR Rahman disappoints though he had great support from one of the few best known poets of our nation Javed Akhtar. Kailash Kher’s title song Mangal Mangal is nothing explosive as one would have expected Kavita Krishnamurthy sounds wasted in the mujra song Main Vari Vari, a tad uninspiring track that sounds so easy one would give its credit to any up and coming music director trying to make it big in Bollywood. The Holi Re would never be the hit song the teenyboppers love to play on the auspicious day like Holi. Udit Narayan, Madhushree, Srinivas and Chinmaye sing the number with Aamir Khan too chipping in. A seductive song Rasiya, by Richa Sharma and Bonnie Chakraborty rendering the highly erotic song sounds a trademark number from one of Ila Arun’s albums. Sorry Rahman, no points for you this time!

Black
The film was songless but director Sanjay Leela Bhansali recorded songs to promote the film – certainly an unconventional way of promotion but it worked! And what a score by Monty! Gayatri Iyer of The Far Pavillions fame, sings a haunting Haan maine bhi… with so much depth that one wonders where is she hiding all these weeks, with only the title track of a Salaam Namaste to her credit. Celebrating life, the number is a strength both for the composer and the singer Michelle's theme is an excellently orchestrated piece of work with good effective use of violin to create a poignant mood. Tracks like Michelle's First Day At School, Mama I Failed, The Colour Of Achievement, A Teacher's Miracleand A Student's Miracle would make one get up and rush for the VCD of the film once again. So poignantly achingly painful they sound. 50 Steps on the Charlie Chaplin lines where Amitabh gives Rani the directions to walk on her own. Jazz and others are all attuned to more western music lovers but so what? A touching tribute to the disabled this album’s sales may not be commercially viable but it has made inroads into a distinctly new category of music in Hindi cinema- background. And therein lies its immensely good quality.

Kaal
Karan Johar’s music is much awaited. He insiders reveal, pays more attention to details to music than most others. Tauba Tauba by Sonu Nigam, Kunal Ganjawala, Sunidhi Chauhan and Richa Sharma, render as if there would be o tomorrow. Magnetic, racy and full throated, they leave you gasping more more. If one thought that Kaal Dhamaal is filmed on SRK and Malaika Arora and its complete paisa vasool!
A great musical combination whose results were awesome.