In spite of the fact that the album had six remixes apart from one unplugged version, I started with the 14-song soundtrack of Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani high on hopes, as it was after all Pritam’s score and he has of late been in tremendous form. But a rude shock awaited me right on track 1! The only thing that makes the clamorous Main Tera Dhadkan Teri – delivered by Hard Kaur, KK and Sunidhi – even mildly listenable is the Yaar Nazar Nahi Aata refrain, though even that sounds the regular Pritam fare. And except for processing the vocals the remix fails to improve the song a single bit. Tu Jaane Na which follows comes as a pleasant relief with its sedate sufi-ish arrangement. I would have preferred someone like Javed Ali instead of Atif Aslam at the vocals though. And for the same reason I found the reprise version of the song rendered by Soham, Rana Mazumdar and Ashish Pandit much more savory. Wonder why Pritam doesn’t give his brother too many opportunities in spite of such immense talent. A case of ghar ki murgi daal baraabar, I wonder! Coming back to the song, a third unplugged version of the song appears in the soundtrack performed by the Kailasa trio, which is even better than the reprise. The absence of percussion adds to the serenity of the track. And as if three versions of the song weren’t enough, Pritam does an overkill with a remix of Atif’s version as well.
After that brief respite Pritam relapses to another mindless tune, this time in the form of Oh By God which has Mika and Sunidhi behind the mike. I think its after a long time that I am finding a song sung by Mika to be distasteful. As compared to Tu Jaane Na, Atif sounds much better in his next outing with Alisha Chinoy, Tera Hone Laga Hoon. The song has been arranged well by Pritam, and in spite of the sense of deja vu in the mild poppish feel et al, the song is nevertheless an enjoyable one. Wonder why the guy singing the English part isn’t credited – he’s definitely not Atif from his voice. Even the slightly pepped up remix is entertaining enough, the remixer not going overboard with the electronic elements. And as though following a sequence, after one decent offering Pritam dishes out another below par track, this time a folk-electronic mix called Prem Ki Naiyya, sung by his regular feature Neeraj Sridhar and Suzanne D’Mello. While the song itself sounds like a remix, the composer apparently isn’t satisfied with that and goes on to remix this song as well, and with rather annoying results.
Aa Jao Meri makes for another decent listen, the banality of the tune notwithstanding. And the major contributors to this are the haunting orchestration, especially the motif, and Javed Ali’s soaring vocals assisted by Jojo. But from the looks of it the song might not hold your interest for a long time. The remix on the other hand is out of reckoning right the moment it starts off with that annoying vocoded female voice! The soundtrack ends with Hard Kaur’s rap, Follow Me, the rap being same that appears in Main Tera.. Rap enthusiasts might find this song to their taste but I for one didn’t, and was thankful that the song is just under three minutes in length, and more importantly has no remix!
After a splendid score in Tum Mile, Pritam disappoints with APKGK, just one of the three decent tunes produced being a really consummate one, others borrowing heavily from his previous works.
Music Aloud’s rating: 5.5/10
Recommended tracks: Tu Jaane Na (Reprise and Unplugged), Tera Hone Laga Hoon, Aa Jao Meri
Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani – Music Review
