DJ Munks.com

Paritosh Painter is a well known name in the comedy circuit. He is now making his directorial debut with Paying Guests with the massive production hand of Mukta Arts above him with the talented Mr. Subhash Ghai leading the way.

Subhash Ghai has not been very successful recently with his last 2 movies Yuvvraaj & Black & White being labelled as flops with poor scripts. But with a bunch of sexy girls like Neha Dhupia, Celina Jaitley, Riya Sen, Sayali Bhagat & Delnaz Paul there is not much of a script required anyway this time..   Plus the presence of actors like Javed Jaffery, Shreyas Talpade, Johnny Lever, Chunky Pandey & Ashish Chowdhry adds that extra comic zing to the movie. But the trailers still look very sleazy & ‘not so’ funny.

We’ll come to investigating the movie in due time after it hits the screens but for now lets find out if the work of music directors Sajid Wajid holds any potential. Their last couple of attempts were average doer’s like Kal Kissne Dekha & Dhoondte Reh Jaaoge and were nearly of the same young-comic genre. The lyrics of Paying Guests are by Jalees Sherwani, AK Upadhyay & Wajid.

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REVIEW

Track 1 – Jack & Jill – Shaan & Earl D’souza set the tone of the album right from the word go.. And that tone is total sleazy slapstick humour. lol. Sajid Wajid have produced a very interesting take on the kindergarten poetry with a funky groove to it & a romantic twist on the lyrics. It surely got fun in every element & Shaan’s vocals are spotless yet again. I don’t know if I hate or like this song.. It’s funny but irritating !!  The video sure is irritating with all actors dressed as school kids.. So overall irritating I say.. 5.5/10 .

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Track 2 – Paying Guests – The title song is almost an exact musical copy of Sajid Wajid’s previous work on tracks like Salma-o-salma & Nako-re-nako from Dhoondte Reh Jaaoge. The vocals of Wajid are of the exact same texture too. It seems Sajid Wajid are obsessed with the Mumbai Marathi beat structure as they use it on almost all of their soundtracks. The lyrics are irritating & cheap. Overall the song totally fails.. 4/10 .

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Track 3 – Ya Rabula Rabbi – The title sure sounds different & thus I was intrigued & waiting to listen to this. The song though .. does NOT sound very different! It’s catchy for sure but the music arrangement has traces of “Your my Love” from Partner which is Sajid Wajid’s work as well. So it seems these dudes are just going around in circles & re-creating their own work… My enthusiasm of hearing something new on this OST is dead by now !!

Sonu Nigam & Amrita Kak’s vocals are average. This probably will be the song with the maximum radio & TV airtime from this soundtrack as it has good lyrics & music formula that has worked well before. Plus it has the advantage of having all the hot couples in the video doing their thing.. Fairly decent track but lacks creativity except the title. 6.5/10.

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Track 4 – Nazar Se Nazaria – Sounds like a crude item number from the lyrics & Sunidhi Chauhan’s vocals. I wonder which of the hot leading ladies is in the video.. Well atleast we have something to look forward to cause this soundtrack is almost over with nothing more to offer. This song fails to keep you listening for long & makes no impression for you to come back to listen to it again. The vocals are average.. lyrics are prude & crude. The music is inspired yet again from a number of songs that I can spend the day listing. 4.5/10.

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Track 5 – Jack & Jill (Remix) – DJ A_Myth is back after a while to Bollywood remixes but with nothing super. I like the rap on this mix but the beat is not hard or attractive enough to be played in a main club dance set. This remix can find it’s way to night start up sets to empty dance floors but no where else. This remix does not make anything better for the average original. 5.5/10.

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Track 6 – Nazar Se Nazaria (Remix) – I fail to understand why they decide to put remixes on their soundtrack except ‘filling up the CD’ reason. This is a totally useless remix by A_Myth. It’s difficult to make out if he has even done anything to the original except add a light electro bass line. What a waste of 3 minutes 29 seconds !! 3.5/10.

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FINAL WORD

Below Average – 4.5/10.

Sajid Wajid are loosing touch. Their music is either inspired from others or from their own work. The music of every song on this OST is copied. The comic element in the songs is tending more towards sleazy rather than funny. The vocal performances are average by the best singers in the industry. The new Indian Idol participants can sing better than this.. The remixes are a total waste of time & CD space. Do you need more reason’s to avoid Paying Guests OST??

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After the ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ review, I got called on to do a review of Subhash Ghai’s new movie BLACK & WHITE .. Live on air on BBC ASIAN NETWORK RADIO for a show called LOVE BOLLYWOOD on 2nd Feb’ 08 morning 9:30 – 10am.

The show can be heard at this link. for a week till Friday the 8th Feb. On the right is the link to Saturday’s show with Padmini Kolhapure. That’s the one. To listen to my review, jump forward 1 1/2 hours & then let it play for 30mins.

This movie is another attempt by Subhash Ghai to get back in the limelight as one of the best Directors in Bollywood. The man who once made massive super hits like Karz, Hero, Ram Lakhan, Saudagar, Pardes, Khalnayak, Taal, etc.. lost it in his last few films like Kisna & Yaadein.. But one thing I believe he never lost is his taste of music. If we completely ignore the movies he has produced and had horrible music.. and take into account only the movies he has Directed.. you will have to agree to the fact that he goes the extra mile to get the right music for his films. This is true even for BLACK & WHITE.

The only difference this time is that he did not use a full fledged famous music director like he always did [Rehman, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Nadeem-Shravan, Anu Malik] but got a brilliant singer to take this project on as his first Music Directorial venture. Sukhvinder Singh proves that he is not just good in the live recording room but can do it equally well in the recording monitor room. Although the man has got help from Salim-Suleman in arranging the music & DJ A-Myth doing the remixes… he still does a commendable job in the compositions. Obviously, he is on the mic on most of the songs.

1 & 4 – Main Chala & Main Chali is a song with some excellent vocals and lyrics. It doesn’t quiet suit well as the first track of the album but does let the listener know that there is not going to be too much action on this album. A fantastic job by Ibraheem Ashk on the lyrics with talking about finding happiness and direction in life as one goes along. Although the music is very simple, it makes a good track for a calm morning track to give one inspiration for the day ahead. There is good use of Bagpipe, Santoor, Sitar, Violin orchestra, etc. to give it that relaxing element. Mr. Singh & Shreya Ghoshal do a respectable job in their respective songs but fail to one glued. This song requires in-depth listening. It is a difficult song to keep one interested. You have to make a special effort to find the best parts of the song and like it rather than developing a natural liking for it. I wanted to skip of it & maybe come back to it if I dint find anything better in the album.

2 – Peer Manava has Shradha Pandit sounding like a kid but suits Sukhvinder perfectly. These are the kind of songs his voice is meant for. It has very authentic Punjabi lyrics about celebrating friendship and companionship with the feel of a wedding mehndi song. The music is very foot tapping with a well programmed beat in a Dholki pattern and Dafli style. Its instrumentation is authentic as well with use of flute, tumbi and ghatam samples. This song is a must for all Asian wedding functions and definitely brings up the happy times in the album. Looking forward to seeing the celebration on the screen for this one.

7 – The Peer Manava Remix by Dj A-Myth [former DJ Amit] doesn’t do much for the song. The song which is already a fun dance tune now just has a more of a synthetic club beat with english chorus vocals. The bassline and strong claps can get this song to work in the clubs for some time.

3 – Jogi Aaya is one of my favourites on this album. Nothing to rave about but it has Sadhna Sargam sounding like a Lata Mangeshkar copy. I wonder if this naturally comes to her. But the reason I like this song is for it’s lyrics and music. The lyrics are more mystical and sufiana than ‘main chala’. Song about love probably shot with this as the background score for a love scene. The singing performance and music is more classically precise with the right harmonies. There is a good blend of Tabla, Sitaar, Mridangam, Aqua Harps, Violins etc. with a modern hard beat. The overall performance is in Hindustani classical music but has an excellent mix of Karnatic alaaps inbetween. Very impressive and well executed. This song is catchier and more noticiable than all other tracks on the album.

8 – Jogi Aaya Remix by A-Myth is an Electro/Progressive house mix. When you listen to it you wonder.. why would they want to do that with a beautiful classical composition… Evidently, people love messing around. The choruses are absolutely rubbish, Sadhna’s voice has been synthesised a little too much… but .. there is a big BUT here… I originally dint like the idea of this mix, but then I played it at one of my event’s in a club & it worked.. The bass synth and beats add an extra charm to the song which definitely works in a club and sound decent. Overall, not a bad remix effort.

5 – Haq Allah is a sufi/mystical/”piya Haji Ali” type song. It has lot of elements of the Rehmaan style of composition & music. It is very situational and I am guessing it will be an ‘unfolding thriller’ scene.. A rare & constracting but a great combo on the vocal with Sukhvinder & Hans Raj Hans. There is some excellent use of percussions of different kinds. I wonder who has performed them.. I am guessing Taufiq Qureshi!! I love the start with fluet & vocal chants & dholak coming in later. Some good vocal harmonies with deep devotional lyrics. My 2nd favourite after Jogi Aaya.

10 – Haq Allah 2 is a very short climax scene song. I am imagining rotating camera shots with the girl running into the arms of her lover kind of a scene. It’s very energetic with Islamic, Hindu & Sikh religious chats. It makes a good track for religious harmony and world peace. Would be a definite hit with a young audience in India. It is very well placed in the album as the last track. It finishes the album on a high & positive note.

6 – Yeh Hindustan Hai is a track I would skip straight off. I would rather suggest dont even listen to it once. Cause if you do.. you might get trapped in the patriotic feel of it & forget the fact that the music is very ordinary.. so is the composition.. The lyrics and old dated and seem inspired.. the choruses are boring.. The vocals are simple and plain but deep since it is Udit Narayan. The instruments used seem to have been used to impress rather than add any meaning to the song. A song good for primary school Republic day parades.. that’s it !!

9 – Yeh Hindustan Hai 2 does not have much with the music. You dont need music when you have Jagjit’s voice on the mic. But still there is simple acoustic guitars, daff beat with a Spanish dub feel. Jagjit seems to have been used to try & uplift a boring song. Frankly.. it doesn’t do much even with Jagjit in there. It’s still boring and dry. I dont get it why did Jagjit agree to do this song. I am going to completely ignore that he ever did a song like this.. just stick to his other awwwwsome tracks..

Subhash Ghai always manages to get the best out of his composers.. I would agree with that once again considering it is Sukvinder’s first time. Din’t have lot of expectations.. so this seems to be a decent album with a fair effort. None of the songs are very impressive, & there are a few bad ones. I would thus give it a 5.5/10. But since I am happy with Sukhvinder’s first main stream effort as a Music Director.. I will give it a 6.5/10.. For Subhash Ghai.. I am now looking forward to his next one with Rehman.. “Yuvraaj” might be the next “Taal”…