Music album reviews

Black And White
Sukhvinder Singh
For Subhash Ghai's first non-commercial film, music director Sukhvinder Singh has composed an unusually mellow and melodious soundtrack based on Indian folk and classical styles.

He starts off with Main Chala – a soft, rhythmic, reflective number. This tune appears later as Main Chali – a fine female version by Shreya Ghoshal. Yeh Hindustan is a somewhat clichéd patriotic song and again has two versions – one by Udit Narayan and other by Jagjit Singh. Jogi Aaya (a duet by Sukhvinder and Sadhna Sargam) and Peer Manava (duet by Sukhvinder and Shraddha Pandit) are two catchy folksy dance numbers.

The album also includes their remixed westernised versions.
The best song of the album has to be Haq Allah Noor Allah – a Sufi-style devotional number sung by Sukhvinder with much emotion and energy.

This turns out to be one of those few modern albums where the songs keep playing in your head long after you listened to them.

Koi Chehra
Adeel
Pakistani model-turned-singer Adeel, who was once a Pepsi brand ambassador, has now released his debut music album. Like many other contemporary young Pakistani singers, Adeel too shows a strong affinity for fusing Sufi and Punjabi folk music with Western pop and rock styles. His voice sounds young and fresh but his songs (mostly about crushes and puppy love) are not very impressive.

Heart Beatz
Various Artistes
This enjoyable compilation of recent Bollywood songs starts off with soft romantic numbers such as Sonu Nigam and Antara Choudhary's Yeh Nigahen, Adnan Sami's Baaten Kuchh Ankahee Si, Kunal Ganjawalla's Masha Allah and Anand Raj Anand's Kasak. The tempo later picks up with upbeat songs such as Sunidhi Chouhan's Mind Blowing Mahiya and Hardkaur-Shankar-Ehsan-Loy's Move Your Body.

Pure Gold
O.P. Nayyar
From the mid '50s to early '70s, composer O.P. Nayyar managed to create a magical kingdom filled with his musical gems. This compilation presents nuggets from his vast, varied and valued repertoire. With all-time classics such as Kabhi Aar Kabhi Paar, Ik Pardesi Mera Dil Le Gaya, Thandi Hawa Kaali Ghata and Sar Par Topi Laal, this album has some good picks.