Ajab film Ka Gajab Music
Unlike Vishal-Shekhar and SEL who almost do the entire album themselves , singing,composing and even writing (in case of vishal-shekhar for Aladin) , Pritam has kept himself to composing only and he still believes in bringing in some of the best singers to do their job and he needs to complemented for that . It brings a variety to the album and doesn’t keep it monotonous .Vishal has given some horrible lyrics for Aladin and he should seriously think about writing . As far as I can remember most writers had some hair on their head 
, just kiddin , no offence to bald people . He did a great job for “Aankhon Mein Teri” in OSO but doing an entire album is just too much too soon .
Coming to “Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani” , its a fun-filled album and it is pretty clear about that . It has 8 originals and 5 remix versions and an unplugged one . Since the film is a crazy love story some of the songs have that crazy element while the others are pure romantic ones . The lyrics are by Irshad Kamil who finally has worked with someone other than Imtiaz Ali . Pritam and Irshad together have already given a hit album this year which results in expectation from this one too .
The first track on the album is very rightly a fun track , “Mein Tera Dhadkan Teri” , which establishes the mood for the entire soundtrack right away . This one has some fun lyrics which are not senseless by the way and the music also has that fun element in it . Its a light track to begin with but has a nice combination of both lyrics and music . I’ve taken for granted that if its Pritam’s album it has to be inspired from some place and I’ve not spent any time figuring out from where . This track also has some RAP bit by Hard Kaur which is good and adds to the track . Sunidhi and KK have done a good job as usual providing vocals for this track . The lyrics are also a bit catchy in nature but not like “Om Mangalam” of Kambakht Ishq . In all , its a good fun track to begin the album .
Then comes probably the best track on the soundtrack , “Tu Jane Na”, by Atif Aslam and not Mohit Chauhan who has sung songs like these for Irshad and Pritam . Atif as usual does a fabulous job with his style of singing . Pritam has also kept the composition simple yet beautiful and given it a bit of classical touch . The chorus (which is a rarity these days) sounds so good and makes the track even more beautiful . The track starts off in an unusual way like it has been continued from some part before . The chorus goes somethig like this …
kaise bataye kyu tujhko chahe , yaara bata na paye ,
batein dilo ki dekho jo baaki , aankhen tujhe samjhaye , tu jaane na …
In all , its a great track that has to work for sure and with Ranbir-Katrina chemistry that is evident in trailers , am sure it would look even better on-screen . Great job by both Pritam and Irshad .
The album switches back to fun mode and we get “Oh by God” . Who said that “Shehnai” is just for sad moods only , Pritam has just proved otherwise and used it in a comic way over here . It has that famous “Wedding Shehnai” . Since its a fun track the lyrics are not meant to be taken seriously but still they are much better than “Bhangra Bistar Beer Bater” . Sunidhi-Mika sing it as usual . This track is also more film oriented and though its a fun track , it would make more sense along with a comic situation in the film .
It switches back again to Romantic mood and thus comes “Tera Hone Laga Hoon” which has Lyrics by Ashish Pandit . This one also has Atif and giving him melodius complany is Alisha Chinoy . This one is also a great track and I think it is equally good as “Tu Jane Na” . It starts off with Neeraj singing some nice english lyrics which add to the beauty of the song throughout . The composition of this one is on the lines of “Is This Love” from Kismat Konnection . Ashish has also done a good job with lyrics and even the three singers have done a great job together . Though Atif is a good singer but I think it is his voice quality which is not something very exceptional and quite normal that makes him so much more popular , it makes you sing the song along with him .
Again a sudden jump to fun mode and we have “Prem Ki Naiyya” ; this one being my favourite amongst the fun tracks . Its got Neeraj singing in a bit of UP style accent and its nice to see him attempt at least something different if not completely . Though its basically a Neeraj kinda track only and fast-paced with all the groovy music in it . Since Ranbir’s name in the film is “Prem” the song has lyrics something like “Prem ki Naiyya hai Ram ke Bharose…” . The song also has Suzanne D’Mello for small bits in between and this time she does the job of singing some weird english lyrics instead of Neeraj . The lyrics are also fine and the music by Pritam is also good in this one .
The long list of the singers gets even longer with Javed Ali and Jojo singing the next romantic track on the album “Aa Jao Meri Tammana” . This one clearly feels like some Emraan Hashmi track that I heard sometime back (so many of them ) . It would have been much better if Emraan would have made a guest appearance for this song . But then he would have demanded to kiss Katrina and if denied would have accused of a biased behaviour against him . I just hope Ranbir doesn’t lip-sync to this song in the film because the voice just won’t suit his boyish charm . This one is not a bad track but i didn’t quite find it interesting either . The lyrics and tune both felt like something that we have heard before . Javed’s fans would love the track .
The last original on the album is a RAP song by Hard Kaur . She is of the better rappers in India and she does a good job mixing hindi,punjabi and english together in this one . I am not a hard-core rap follower so I cannot comment on whether its inspired from some track or not . But personally I liked the track and its worth listening , much better than that “Genie Rap” from Aladin . Since a part of this track was also a part of the first one on the album , the music of this one has shades of the first track . A short and sweet number which has not been made unnecessarily long . The lyrics by Hard Kaur are also good and much better than many other rappers in India .
Then follows a long list of remixes,reprise editions and unplugged versions which is a thing to expect in most Pritam’s albums . He likes his own work so much that he does it all over again to complement himself . All of them are like usual remixes only so nothing to waste time on . Leave these tracks for DJs only .
I think Pritam wanted to make some record of sorts with this album so he brings on Kailash Kher and his group to sing an unplugged version of “Tu Jaane Na” . Since this one is my favourite track on the album and Kailash is also one of my favourite singers , I liked this one too . Kailash sings it in his own style and his earthly voice . A nice little treat for Kailash kher fans to end the album .
With so many singers , the album does provide a nice variety of tracks and it doesn’t feel monotonous . The album is so much better than the long list of below average soundtracks that are out there in the market right now (All the best,London Dreams,Main aur Mrs.Khanna,Aladin,Jail and even Radio ) . The soundtrack has a nice mix of romantic and fun tracks which also have a good bit of lyrics and not some average commercial crap . Both Irshad and Pritam have done a good job together again .The film would definately benefit from it . I am now looking forward to the film and since it is not an out and out comedy like Andaaz Apna Apna , I would try to keep that film out of my mind while watching this one . I hope Rajkumar Santoshi hits back . Bohot din ho gaye koi achchi comedy film dekhe hue .
Album Rating : Three and Half out of Five .
Tags: Ajab prem ki ghazab kahani music review, irshad kamil, Pritam
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
again a juvenile…& agenda driven view of author..no i cant call it a review…wonder how these so called reviews r making it to pfc…last month there were quite a few…pfc pull up ur socks
What possibly could be my agenda ?? please clarify…
I agree . .it’s just appreciation of a good piece of art .. the Aladin post though looked like a propaganda.
impetutous: Sigh! I ranted about the same thing via a tweet and PFC’s tweeters caught it and said, “PFC is a user gen blog/ community where passionate movie lovers discuss about films. We have a review process for posts. The writing styles may vary. We’re not Roger Ebert, not what PFC is about. If you’d like to add value to PFC, you’re welcome to write for PFC”.
My point is, there has to be a certain collective sensibility associated with a website that runs on user-generated content. Many of the recent music/ movie reviews completely belie (personal opinion) the PFC standard I was used to, earlier. Not that I’ll stop reading PFC – just that the impression progressively worsens.
I understand your problem but I can write in the language that I know ..Why don’t you define Passion just for me ?? Whatver you think honestly about PFC , you can share that with a nice post that has a POINT …am sure PFC will publish it, then we all can discuss about that and then formulate certain “standards” for posting and next time instead of writing straight from my heart in my own language , i would confirm to those standards and then I can hope that at least you would like the post … last thing I want is to pretend to be a pseudointellectual …
Saurabh: I did not talk about passion or point or even standards. Check my comment again. I referred to a collectively sensibility; to make it clearer, of (a) quality of content and(b) a specific tone of content. That was because this is the place which boasts of some fabulous celebrity writers, as listed in the side panel. I’m sure normal content creators like you and me may not be able to bring that level of insights and standard, but PFC’s owners could try having some yardstick to go with that standard. After all, this is not just a message board kind of website and content is actually posted in the form of a blog post.
Karthik , just want to let you know that I am not trying to pick any fight here
.. I love your website itwofs … Using the same words that you used in your comm , I don’t think Art in any form has descrete definitions of a)Quality and b)yardsticks,standards … these can be used for physical things only …and then there are always editors who can reject the posts which they have in my case 
Saurabh,
I don’t know how to tell this without offending you…Just four lines into your review and I looked straight for the author’s name…Wanted to know if it was the same guy who wrote about Blue’s music…I’m still tryin to figure out what exactly made me think like tat…It was definitely not the language…Maye be it was the logic…which seemed so out the place…Shankar din’t sing a single song in Rock-On…And he’s definitely one of the best in business..(Though, he’s gettin a bit repetitive, I feel)…What I’m still trying to understand is that how does all that fit into THIS album’s review…
Being the optimist I am, I continued readin only to be shocked with your declaration of “London Dreams” being a below average album…I perfectly understand all the “difference in opinions” BS, but there are specific words in “English” that stand for individual opinion ,public reaction n so on…
Even last time you had turned your “personal liking” into “more popular”.
Tushar & Amanda,
reviews se sanyaas le liya kya aap logon ne???
hi bala , first of all let me tell you that i am not offended ..everyone has a right to have an opinion and i am no big personality to get offended ..as the first comment says i am just a”juvenile” which i actually believe i am …
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first of all i am not at all against SEL or Vishal-Shekhar , if i would have had a bias against SEL then i wouldn’t have rated “wake up sid” so high .. coming to vishal-shekhar i’ve got nothing against them too .. the reason i gave these two examples is that when i see an album cover of theirs , i see their name almost everywhere which kinda brings a certain degree of monotony in the album ..
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And if you are suggesting that i should stop posting then i must tell you that i think i won’t ..i’ve left that job for the editors.. they can anytime stop accepting my articles and then i would stop posting them..
This is truly refreshing …
Awesome songs .. Atif and kailash Kher singing probably their best ever.
And just to clarify : I’m in no way related to Pritam, Atif, KK or RKS ..
even I want to clarify that I am also not related to Pritam,Atif,KK or RKS
Also,
You need not necessarily be related to a person to push your agenda or propaganda supporting them or against their rivals…Its just your alignment with their sensibilities…
(Havving said that, agenda,propaganda are words too heavy for this sort of a discussion…Personal Bias is more like it)
i was waiting for this album from ages but what a disappointment it has been
none of the songs were worth listening twice. had to delete the album after hearing the songs
i feel that london dreams and all the best was better than this one
honestly RKS never had an ear for music. so i aint surprised
i am just hoping that the movie would work
I actually liked the music of Andaz Apna Apna.
I clearly remember the songs of AAA made way on the radio stations WAYYY before the movie was released. And they had become a rage at least within my group of friends. We used to sing ‘Yeh lo jee sanam’ riding our bicycles. 
And other good RKS album was The Legend of Bhagat Singh.
Yes yeh lo jee sanam and yeh raat aur yeh doori were good
SPB’s voice at that time sounded fine to me
But today when i listen to Maine Pyar Kiya, Love and this song from AAA, i somehow cringe.
I really dont know why
So true, Legend of Bhagat Singh was an amazing album. I remember AR Rehman won some film award for another movie, and said that we wished he had got this award for Legend instead…..
i think karthik from itwofs.com summed up the album perfectly
sharath I dont think Karthik in any line of his comment summed up the ALBUM…he has talked about my post … though I respect your opinion n thanx for readin , if you have..
Saurabh,
trust me, i really wanted to like this album.
all of ranbir’s movies till now have good music.Hence i was sure that this would have some memorable music too but on the other hand i was also afraid that RKS would not have selected some good tunes.
Can you name any RKS movie where the songs were good. Apart from Andaz apna apna, i cant recollect any other songs from his movies.
This is what Karthik said
‘Frivolous, messy tunes…Ajeeb soundtrack from the usually-Ajab Pritam’
Ohk you meant by his review on his website ..sorry about that …
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Concerning the other point you made , I think in India , any movie which had a successfull run at the box-office always had a decent music in it . RKS has given several hits and am sure the music would not have been bad .
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Personally, the music from his movies like Barsaat (Humko Sirf Tumse Pyaar Hai) , Pukar (Sunta Hai Mera Khuda,Kay Sera ), The Legend of Bhagat Singh etc. wasn’t that bad and in fact quite popular . even AAA had some nice songs . do mastane and ello ello still make me smile ..
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Though China Gate and Lajja didn’t work on the box-office , Urmila’s songs from both the films , Chamma Chamma & Aaiye Aa Jaiye , did work quite well . . so I don’t think RKS has a big problem in that dept but I agree that the soundtracks of his films are not something like a CLASSIC .. still good enough..
Saurabh,
I take back my words
Legend of Bhagat Singh had awesome music, so did Pukaar and Barsaat
I was just referring to Ghayal, Halla Bol, Lajja, Ghaatak
I dont know if i am the only one but i loved China Gate. I felt it was an awesome movie when I watched it.
Dont know how I would feel about it if i watched it now
i am yet to see “china gate” .. will see , on your recco
, if it comes on television some day ..
Hi Sharath,
The movie ‘legend of Bhagat Singh’ had some great songs composed by ARR. Also his movie ‘Pukar’ had some decent tracks.
The background score for Legend of bhagat Singh is one of the finest works of ARR till date on any national heroes subject he worked on!
RKS is known for characterisation/dialgoues/plot more than his music, let’s hope he gets back to form. He is one of the Indian directors who has tried different genre of movies most of the times.
the songs of this film work for me only with the video. as an independent creative product i just can’t hear them. bro, saurabh, being from indore, i can understand why you like ‘prem ki naiyya’. gimme aladin any day. have been hearing ‘may be you’re the one’ atleast a dozen times a day. that said, i do appreciate the fact that you do music reviews regularly. keep up the spirit bro.
hi there
well honestly me liking “Prem Ki Naiyya” has got nothing to do with the city I live in ..since you brought up indore , I want to let you know that there’s a Global Cine Fest (organised by Film Fedaration of India) going on here .. this is the first year only .. Just watched Akira’s “Seven Samurai” and I wont forget the experience .. it is such a raw and real kind of film that it just blew me … can someone plz recomend any film from the list available on this website :
http://www.gcfest.com
some great movies lined up for the fest.the feature films for the last 2 days ( tom & day after ) are all by masters and so maybe you should try to watch them.
thanks i’ll try to watch some of them …
interesting to note that Atif Aslam can be counted among “some of the best singers”.
Hi Saurabh,
Watch out Rashomon from Kurasava. You will love it more than samurai.
thanx a lot amit
i just watched Rashomon , it was quite interesting and i loved the concept but i still like “seven samurai” more than this one 
well he has a different style – bit casual .. but very soothing. Atleast I’ll count him as one of the best around.
@aditya – Congrats, u now join the elite company of Atif-bashers like Adesh Srivastava, Abhijeet, Sunidhi Chauhan etc.
I don’t know about Sunidhi, but Adesh and Abhijeet seem to be more miffed because he’s a Pakistani. Anyway, what other’s think is none of my business. To my ears, Atif Aslam’s voice sounds ‘besura’ and ‘karkash’. Maybe it’s time I showed myself to an ENT specialist.
well even I agree that his voice does sound really besura sometimes but its not his fault i guess , thats his natural voice … sometimes even i wonder that how has he become so popular but when i listen to “tere bin” from “bas ek pal” my doubts gets dispeled … i don’t know about other things but he does bring in a lot of emotions in his singing ..
There was a time when I used to listen to Bikhra Hoon Main Abhi like an anthem.
The good thing about Atif’s vocals was that it sounded like one of us was singing.
Ironically when we watch some actor act as if he was just one of us, we applaud him. When it comes to singers, we still want heavenly voices!
*Disclaimer: I am not related to Atif and I don’t even follow him any more.
@tejas: ‘bikhra hoon main’ is by Farhan who joined Jal when Atif left. .maybe tht is why u liked it.
Sorry .. i forgot something
Disclaimer: I am not related to Atif/Farhan
Well i don’t know a lot about Sur ..
for that matter even Lucky Ali was not a trained singer …. but what the heck … he did sound as pleasing to me as Sonu Nigam (the best) ….
i think there’s enough space for both kinds of singers to slug it out .. .let the judgements remain to the out-of-work music directors and singers … lolzz
I have been listening to the music of APKGK continuously today & I must say that the music is fairly pleasing to the ears.Not outstanding but definitely interesting.
thanks a lot sethu sir … just when i started doubting myself , your comment has given me some relief …even i agree that its not OUTSTANDING but looking at the type of film i think its a nice sooundtrack that would suit the film .. and i seriously believe that half of the job has been alredy done , now if the film is even fairly good , it will turn out to be a hit ..lets hope it is at least fairly good ..don’t you think the Soundtrack is better than the other ones that are out there right now??
…just the other day i was watching DPL (Dance Premier League) on Sony and a guy performed to a really rocking telegu/tamil song and i felt so pissed off that i cannot figure out what song it is 
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and btw i am still waiting for your post on Southern Film Music
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I would like to request Pritam to rather get the rights of some good tracks from south-Indian films than lifting tunes from malaysian music so that at least guys like me can enjoy the music
Hey! Saurabh just a couple of days back I remembered that I’m yet to write my post on South Indian film music which I had planned sometime back, will work on the same soon.
Its nice to see the kind of enthu you have for film music and yes about the music of APKGK I would say again that its not outstanding but pleasing music nevertheless.Yaar nazar nahin aata, tu jaane na, tera hone laga hoon,main tera dhadkan teri are all certainly good songs.Of course Tu Jaane Na ( both versions ) is the best of the lot.
As for comparison with recent soundtracks – frankly speaking I feel that the quality of recent sound tracks has been certainly better.I like the songs of Blue ( repeated hearing has helped
), Radio ( some of the songs like Piya Jaise Laado,teri meri dosti ka,rafa dafa kiya nahin etc are quite unlike HR’s usual stuff ), London Dreams and even Tum Mile to some extent.
I doubt Pritam would follow your advice, that would mean he’s admitting to copying tunes
Radio is quite a super album to be honest. Rafa Dafa, Piya Jaise Ladoo, Mann ka Radio are pretty good.
London Dreams disappointed me a bit. Some songs are good but SEL lack that punch, alas, once again. Tum Mile again same comment as London Dreams.
I was also disappointed with Tum Mile … Radio .. i’ll take ur recomendation and hear next.
even i was disappointed with the “tum mile” soundtrack .. i usually don’t watch any of Emran’s films but the music of his films is certainly something to look forward to ..
“Pleasing to the ears” might apply to a couple of songs but thats about it. Which is pretty disappointing coming from Pritam who so far had a good year. And Tum Mile was disappointing? In spite of Tu Hi Haqeeqat, O Meri Jaan etc? Surprising!
It’s disappointing in a way that he still sticks to the same formula that has worked in gazillion other Mahesh Bhatt films. I personally appreciate an artist better when he comes out of his comfort zone and tries something different. Having a signature is one thing, and having only a signature is entirely another thing. The songs of a Himesh movie were working amazingly before he had one or two non-exciting OSTs. He went back and recreated his own sound. This may not be sooo terrific on a larger level but he tried to change things at his own level. I fail to see Pritam doing that, so when you hear songs of Tum Mile (barring the title which is so nicely done 80’s throwback), it doesn’t give you that feeling of newness. It’s good, but haven’t you heard the same Pritam songs before?
Point taken. But there are some tunes of which even if you hear various permutations and combinations you dont exactly feel fed up exactly. And I consider the tunes of Bhatt movies in that category mostly. Of course my personal feeling.
And Tu Hi Haqeeqat wasn’t exactly the regular Pritam fare I felt.
Saurabh,
If my comments seem to imply that you should stop writing, then may be I need to improve my writing skills…And that can be done only by writing more and reading more…Also, by taking crticism objectively…I’ve tried my best to stay objective with my cmnts…Frankly, i din’t like a lot many things in this review…In fact, after readin ur line on Vishal’s hairstyle(or the lack of it), I almost expected u to compare it with Pritam’s. Thanked God when u proved me wrong.
Suddenly, Emran hashmi pops in frm no where….
The lyrics u found worthy of special mention is straight out of the most ancient template of hindi film lyrics…
(And try listenin to the lyrics in London Dreams…not all of it is gr8…but most of it veers away frm the ‘template’ of dil, jigar, jaan, zulfon, nigahon stuff….these two lines have stayed with me ever since I hrd them for the first time)
I cud go on n on..But like yestrdy, i’m feelin sleepy again..so will stop, hoping for a better review next time..will definitely read it n comment either way…
I think I’ve said whatever i wanted to say in the post ..if i have to explain it further it means that i’ve failed in it in the firstplace
and even if i would go on explaining , you would go on comm 
won’t change your opinion …
guys … chill .. let’s leave something for the next review.
btw … just listening to Mohit Chauhan’s solo – ‘Fitoor’.
Lots of expectations.
so far so good.