Heroes

Cast : Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Dino Morea, Riya Sen, Vatsal Seth, Salman Khan, Mithun Chakraborty, Preity Zinta, Sohail Khan, Amrita Arora, Rekha
Directed by : Sameer Karnik
Producer : Bharat Shah, Sameer Karnik, Vikas Kapoor
Music Director : Monty Sharma, Sajid-Wajid
Lyricist : Jalees Sherwani, Rahul Seth
Release Date : 24 October 2008

Expectations are presumed to be mercurial high if you have an array of biggies like Salman Khan, Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Preity Zinta in main leads and so the music has to be equally swashbuckling in its display. Samir Karnik's HEROES packs up all the machismo in one magnanimous package, where Salman Khan's favourite Sajid-Wajid along with Monty Sharma leads its musical exhibit. Action-packed thrillers have not been high on melodic contents and so the possibilities of hitting high on charts sound unpredictable and unassuming. Sajid-Wajid has their hands full with hits while Monty Sharma is still on a sticky wicket. Can they together pull out a big surprise for this superstar enriched action potboiler? Will HEROES be able to deliver musical ''heroes'' in its audio packaging? Let's make a cool introspection of it!

In the year 1999, Preity Zinta made a sparkling presence in Jatin-Lalit's lovable melody ''Dil Ka Qarar'' (SANGHARSH) and once again Sonu Nigam voices out a similar sounding duet that has soul in it and comes out remarkably in the opening track ''Mannata''. The soft and synchronize flute notes binds the aura of romanticism and it lit up with somber paced arrangements that collage impressively with Sonu Nigam and Kavita Krishnamurthy voices. Sajid-Wajid makes the most remarkable maneuver of the album where the striking feature is the comeback of versatile Kavita Krishnamurthy in varying sentimental shades. Jalees Sherwani lyrical work makes earnest efforts to create an ethnically enriched picturesque of ''Udja Kale Kawa'' (GADAR (2001) in it's simplistically ''filmi'' wordings.

''Mannata - Lover's Paradise'', an upbeat musical version of this ''full of life'' song tries to be euphoric in its instrumental displays and impresses out with thumping and jiving electronic beat patterns that make beautiful chemistry with mellifluous voices. After enchanting ''Mitwa Re'' (HELLO), Sajid-Wajid strikes pure gold with this syrupy melody composition and succeed in creating an ambience of eternal romanticism that stays on with its last beat.

The machismo quotient of HEROES gets a thriving boost as it gets pulverized with strong inspirational lifts from Hollywood's 80 and 90's stylized theme original soundtracks in boisterously expressive ''Wat's Up My Bro''. Kunal Ganjawala's loud-pitched and booming baritones sets the towering inferno of lively ''adventures'' of boy-brigade in a composition that is heavily loaded with westernized orchestrations. Monty Sharma makes bombastic usage of energetic keyboards, saxophones, violin and belligerent percussions to create a furor of youthful moments in this five minutes plus track. Like hot-headed ''Mission Istanbul'' (MISSION ISTANBUL), this exuberantly pompous action-packed melodic work is likely to be hot-selling among pop genre and is likely to be favorites in car-stereo song collections.

''Wat's Up My Bro - Cruiser'' cruises like tidal storm with peppy ''club'' remix inputs that gets high on echoing and beat juggling impacts. Mood softens up with Shail Hada's refined vocals as this Rahul Seth's penned song gets a soul-stirring voyage with somber arrangements and poignantly melodramatic wording in ''Wat's Up My Bro (slow)''. Shail's penetrative voice makes a serene presence and permeates well with the soulful outcry exhibited in Monty's well synchronized slow arrangements. It's all together a satisfying experience in all three versions and this is where Monty Sharma makes himself prominent in big way. ''Dhoom Dhoom Luck Luck'' (DILLAGI) was vivacious; ''Ankh Vich Chehra'' (APNE) was foot tapping and now ''Makhna'', third communion of Deol's brothers proves to be outrageously entertaining of the lot as it mixes up pop-patriotism in its wild ''bhangra'' swings. Sajid-Wajid's wholesome ''bhangra'' flows are rip-roaring as well as pulsating in its earlier grooves as it gets strikingly volatile further in thriving electronic beats and sounds. Sukhwinder Singh makes a hitherto ''Punjabi'' singing in energetic zeal and gets it coordinated well with Soumya Rao and Wajid back-up vocals. This ''Punjab da puttar'' special track is likely to be one ''hot ''n'' happening factor'' in flick's narration and will be sparkling factor in luring out viewers to theatres.

''Makhna (Killer)'' mixes up impact of ''Heroes theme'' and sensuous feminine chorals that gets accentuated with high ''beats per second'' ''club'' remixing in extra-accelerated tempo. It could have been party-swaying affair but ear-splitting and hurried remixing proves to be big spoilsport.

After extraordinarily impressive ''Saawariya'' and ''Yoon Shabnami'' (SAAWARIYA), there were gargantuan expectations from triumphant trio (Monty Sharma, Shail Hada and Parthiv Gohil) but hopes dashed to ultimate dearth in poorly composed ''Badmash Launde''. Monty makes mess of an affair by camouflaging out haphazard folksy lyrics in weird flows of outlandishly composed arrangements. Talented Shail Hada and Parthiv Gohil shriek out bawdy wordings while ill-tempered and screechy Rekha Rao added feminine voice makes it a big apology for the album.

It gets a second lease of life in disco-friendly ''Badmash Launde (Blasted)'' that proves to be better offering where loud DJ beats and claps in typical ''club'' musical maneuvers cover-up for the rowdy musical displays.

Shail Hada makes a worthy comeback in piously rendered ''Gurbani'' that speaks lots about devotion in its brief rendition.

''Heroes Theme'', a nostalgic finale to the album in the form of ''instrumental'' emotes out with brilliant amalgamation of different style, genre and instrumental flows that narrates out various facades and events of the film. It's an impeccable background score work that picks up with soft piano drills that gets followed with soulful outcry and rock guitar jam in stylish rock band attire. It transits to engrossing climax music in its rigorous percussions and unravels back to melody-line chorals in its middle phases but picks up well with army band thumps and rock guitar jams and fades out with soft piano and outcries. It's a great instrumental piece arranged by Sanjay Chowdhary that mixes up varied emotions and situations through melodramatically inundated instrumental displays.

HEROES stands out as worthy album but not an outstanding piece of musical work that could have live up to the gigantic face value of the film. Sajid-Wajid makes another ''cool'' impression to be Salman's favorites by scoring out appreciably in ''Mannata'' and rip-roaring ''Makhna''. After mediocre CHAMKU, Monty Sharma makes his striking presence in ''Wat's up my bro'' (all 3 versions) but disappoints completely in weird sounding ''Badmash Launde''. ''Heroes Theme'' comes out as icing on the cake but ''Wat's up my bro'' turns out to be ultimate winner of the show.