Aladin (Music) - Fun soundtrack for the fantasy film..

Movie - Aladin (Hindi)
Director - Sujoy Ghosh
Producer - Sunil A Lulla, Sujoy Ghosh
Cast - Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Riteish Deshmukh, Jacqueline Fernandes. 
Music - Vishal & Shekhar
Lyrics - Vishal Dadlani, Anvita Dutt Guptan
Singers - Shankar Mahadevan, Shaan, Shreya Ghoshal, Sudesh Bhosle, Vishal Dadlani, Shekhar Ravijani, Anushka Manchandani, Sunidhi Chauhan, Sanjay Dutt and Amitabh Bachchan. 
Release Date - 30th October 2009.


Aladin, by Sujoy Ghosh is a modern day adaptation of the Arabian fairy tale made in the fantasy genre. So it is natural that we expect a fantastic soundtrack from this film. And the composers Vishal and Shekhar almost satisfies our expectations with some great music. There are 7 tracks in the album, out of which 5 are straight tracks and 2 are remixes. Now, lets get into the review of this fun soundtrack. 

The first song in the album is 'Genie Rap' where the Genie, played by Amitabh Bachchan does some neat rap. Mr.Bachchan gives his own voice to this number. We have seen him rapping to Blaaze's voice in Bunty Aur Babli. But this time around, he has done the rapping himself. (Vishal-Shekhar made him do a similar jig in Bhoothnath as well). Anushka Manchanda gives the supporting vocals. Its a fun rap number with a steady rhythm and groovy beats. It captures your attention immediately and you'll like it on the first hearing itself. Amitabh Bachchan, as usual, does a great job behind the mic. The 'Bombiri bom..' part towards the end of the song was nice to hear in Mr. Bachchan's deep baritone. The song is less than 3 minutes, pretty less for a Hindi song. (4/5)

The next song, 'Tak Dhina Dhin' is again an interaction between the Genie and Aladin. It has vocals by 2 fabulous singers, Shankar Mahadevan and Shaan, who bring the required energy and pep to this song. The song has a club mood and the chorus part which goes 'Tak dhina dhin, Hey Aladin' is the highlight of the song. The tempo of the song changes quite often, most probably to facilitate the picturisation of the song. If you want an energetic track, then Shankar Mahadevan is the ultimate choice. He does full justice to the song by bringing loads of energy to it. He sounds perfect for Amitabh Bachchan. Shaan also does a great job in supporting him as Riteish's voice. Very impressive track. (3.5/5)


The next song is 'Ore Saawariya' by Amitabh Bachchan, Sudesh Bhosle, Shreya Ghoshal and Shaan. The song starts with Shreya's lovely voice doing a small bit from the song and Amitabh Bachchan joins bringing a folk touch to it. Amitabh Bachchan sings the first paragraph of the song, while his voice is replaced by Sudesh Bhosle's voice quite seamlessly as the song progresses. It is difficult to find out the difference between their voices but Amitabh Bachchan creates certain unique sounds which only he can do whenever he comes behind the mic. This song has him dancing with a white kurta and pink turban like in his old superhit song, 'Pag Ghungroo Bandh'. Like that one, this song is also a highly energetic track which is picturised as a dance number in the film. The song ends with a smart bit by Amitabh Bachchan which is absolutely a delight to hear. (4/5)


The track, 'You May Be' is a soulful romantic song with some Hinglish lyrics. The composers Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravijani sing the song themselves. A romantic number between Ritiesh and Jacqueline, this song gives a pleasant feel to the listener. Its the kind of song that can work very well if visualized effectively in the film. The video promo which is out no shows that it has been picturised well indeed, with Amitabh teaching Riteish to romance. The lyrics by Vishal Dadlani is nice, in spite of being a mixture of some very common words in both English and Hindi. Impressive again!! (3.5/5)


The next song is 'Bachke O Bachke' by Shankar Mahadevan, Shaan, Sunidhi Chauhan and Vishal Dadlani.  A not so impressive club number with all these singers trying to raise the energy levels. Might or might not work depending on the visuals in the movie for the song. It doesnt work as an individual track. There is an instrumental interlude playing portions of the Tak Dhina Dhin song. Probably a song with most of the star cast in it. It didnt work as a stand alone track for me. A very ordinary dance number. (2.5/5)

We already heard Amitabh Bachchan, who is a fantastic actor, doing a great job as a singer also in 2 tracks. In the next track, 'Giri Giri', its the turn of Sanjay Dutt to go behind the mic. He is famous laid-back casual attitude while singing is made use of in this track as well. (I'm a fan of his songs like Rama Re, Tez Dhaar, etc from Sanjay Gupta movies). Basically a track set in the world of the villain, Ringmaster, played by Sanjay Dutt himself in the film. Sanjay Dutt brings all the wickedness of the villain through his singing in this song which has some interesting lyrics also. Again, a short track which is about a little more than 3 minutes. Have to wait for the video to see Sanjay Dutt performing to his own song. All in all, a very good track. (3.5/5)


I'm not discussing the remix tracks as usual. There are remixes of the Genie Rap song and the Ore Saawariya song. 


Vishal & Shekhar have come up with a neat package of songs for this fantasy film which looks very promising. There are not many songs and the ones that are there are good, except for one ordinary track (Bachke O Bachke). Vishal - Shekhar have been making some great music in the past few years (Om Shanti Om, Bachna Ae Haseeno, Dostana, Tashan)  and are turning into the most wanted composers these days. They do not disappoint us this time also. Rounding up, the album has some really nice tracks ranging from rap to romance to folk to situational numbers. 


Rating - 3.5/5