Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy

Lyrics: Niranjan Iyengar

Label: Sony Music

Rating: 2/5

Starting from Sajda, a song that has been doing rounds on the films promo's, this song is sung by Richa Sharma, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Shankar Mahadevan. One thing that really hooks about this song is the enchanting chorus line. Of course,  Rahat Fateh Ali Khan is mesmerizing with the way he delivers. However, the real gem on ths album is Ustad Rashid Khan's Allah Hi Rahem  - a song that is a great combination of soul, melody and lyrics – to say the least - this song is meditative and must not be missed! On many occasions one can feel the illustrious Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan coming out alive in Rashid's voice - it's that good!

The song Noor-e-Khuda, which boasts of interesting singer combination (Shankar Mahadevan and Adnan Sami) fails to engage because of its repetative nature. While Shafqat Amanat Ali's soft paced romantic song Tere Naina sounds very generic or common (disappointing again!). The trio closes the album with Rang De – a 'Rock On' styled anthem with classical variations that is sung by Shankar Mahadevan and Suraj Jagan.

Needless to say, with a Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy product, expectations are always high. Their last score - London Dreams didn't go down as well as their earlier hits. Ironically, this score is so Sufi/ Qawwali that on many occasions it gets over bearing. However, that is not the only reason that pulls it down as most songs have melodic references that we have already heard from SEL trio before. However, MNIK does boast of good singers like Richa Sharma, Shreya Ghoshal, Adnan Sami, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Rashid Khan, Shafqat Amanat Ali, Suraj Jagan and Shankar Mahadevan himself who with their voice help in adding some weight to the melodies, but having said that, this isn't an album that grows instantly. Period.

OUR PICK

ALLAH HI RAHEM - RASHID KHAN