One Fine Monday

Oh yes, I have indeed become greedy. After all May 2008 turned out to be a record month when it comes to music albums hitting the stands. At last count, after reviewing 18 albums in a single month, I wanted to check out what more was in the offering from Bollywood. After all there had been some good albums (Haal E Dil, Jaane Tu? Ya Jaane Naa, Love Story 2050, Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic) and a few outrightly forgettable albums (Mere Baap Pehle Aap, Dashavatar (animation), Mr. White Mr. Black) .

With Adhyayan Suman enjoying being a part of one of the best albums of the season, Haal E Dil, I wanted to know how has father Shekhar Suman scored when it comes to his film One Fine Monday that has music by Siddharth Shrivastav and lyrics by Manu Chobe. Even though expecting great music in a set up like this is asking for a little too much, one still plays it on to see where does One Fine Monday takes it's listener.

'Ok, so it is going to be a lost cause from here on' - That's the immediate comment that one is forced to make the moment Sunidhi Chauhan begins 'Dabi Aag', an item song that has below average arrangements, some uninspired singing and an absolute unexciting tune. With a strong feeling of deja vous, which gives an indication of what to expect in the remainder of One Fine Monday, one quickly skips through the 'remix version' that follows immediately after.

A song, which is straight out of an also-ran 80's film, 'Deewana Dil', is so pedestrian that one wonders what made the audio company even have courage to release the album on the stands. Supposed to be a peppy romantic number, this Abhijeet and Richa Sharma sung duet has nothing new to offer at all, what with lyrics like 'Is Mod Pe Tum Ho Mile, Ab Na Rukega Ye Chakka'. Gawd!

Composer Siddharth Shrivastav himself comes behind the mike for 'Sab Ganya'. Well, if a poor job as a composer wasn't bad enough, Siddharth demonstrates that he can be an equally bad (or perhaps worse) singer as well. Trying to be dark and haunting while introducing a shady character, 'Sab Ganya' is situational. Well, it would have hardly mattered if it were an item number as well since everything about the song is so bad that you run out of patience to even listen to the rest of the album. But well, a job is a job so I move on to the remaining two numbers!

Now where did this come from? Suddenly there is a 'bhajan' beginning to 'Ram Rang Le' by Pt. Madhukar Chobe. Well, as it happens, it turns out to be a remix outing which seems to belong to the same style that one is witnessing in numerous mythological animation flicks. With Vinod Rathod also coming behind the mike, 'Ram Rang Le' adds on to the list of poor compositions in One Fine Monday. But guess what, the makers thought of incorporating a 'remix version' to this as well. Of course, no one would still be interested in listening to the album!

Well, if all this wasn't enough, Shekhar Suman himself decides to come behind the mike to render 'Shyam Diya'. Trying to be fast based and very peppy, this track describes the graph of the character played by Shekhar Suman who happens to be a Don. A boring number to the hilt, it brings this unbearable album to the end.

Sau baat ki ek baat - One Fine Monday is the worst album of the year. With this being my 19th review of the month, it has diluted all my desires to make it 20 in a row!