Music: Pritam

Lyrics: Irshad Kamil, Neelesh Misra, Sameer and Amitabh Bhattacharya

Label: T-Series

Rating 2.5/5

True that Pritam had many plagiarism accusations thrown at him, but all that seems to be now buried under his back-to-back commercial hits. The sound and music of his latest film Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai has his trademark hook and feel as expected, with some surprises thrown in.

While Pee Loon (written by Sameer) is melodious, the only hitch is the song's uncanny similarity with some of his earlier scores. One wonders if this song was built on the Teri Ore track from Singh is Kinng. It's singer Mohit Chauhan's voice on this breezy track that saves the day. Compared to this, the romantic track Tum Jo Aye (written by Irshad Kamil) sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Tulsi Kumar sounds fresh. However, the reprise version of the same track is much better.

The real surprise/experimentation comes with Parda. This track is written by Irshad Kamil, and builds up on R D Burman's two popular cabaret songs Duniya Mein Logo Ko and Piya Tu Ab to Aaja. Pritam organically weaves his own melody on these two classic numbers with singers Rana Mazumdar and Sunidhi Chauhan. It's not something that can be looped, but it definetly deserves to be heard.

The album also features a mushy track I Am In Love, but its gets repetitive after a point. It's hard to believe its written by Neelesh Misra who wrote Jaadu Hai Nasha Hai from Jism. Singers Karthik and KK (who sings the remix version of the same track) somehow end up singing a track with a feeling that sounds forceful and superficial.

Punjabi singer Mika gets to sing a fun track Babu Rao which fills the gap of a must-have zanny song. It's nice, but nothing great as far as melody goes. But its lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya who deserves a pat for his lyrics on this one.

Pee Loon and Tum Jo Aye are sure to catch on, but it's also high time for Pritam to shuffle his arrangements and predictable song structures.

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