Mission Ustaad - A unique show for a great cause

It feels great to see big stars such as AR Rahman, Aamir Khan, Sachin, and Dravid speak about India's commitment to UN and the new reality show Mission Ustaad, which is aimed at spreading the message. The show premiers today, Dec 1st, on 9X channel.



For those who are unaware of this show, here's a small preview - Mission Ustaad is a musical show where four celebrity singers will compose songs based on various themes to take forward the message of UN’s eight Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The best singer pair will be given a chance to cut an album co-produced by Endemol India, 9X television channel and UN. Its hosted by Musical Maestro A.R. Rahman, writer and poet par excellence Javed Akhtar and Miss Universe and actress Lara Dutta.

The following singing sensations will get together and battle it out for the title of Ustaad Jodi.

Roop Kumar Rathod and Sonali Rathod

Kailash Kher and Mahalakshmi Iyer

Vasundhara Das and Mohit Chauhan

Naresh Iyer and Shweta Pandit

The crux of Mission Ustaad is to create awareness about the UN Millenium Development Goals (MSGs) across the country. For more details on this show click here - Mission Ustaad

I heard the song Jaago Jaago...very inspiring and promising. I guess all the singers were chosen by AR Rahman as most of them are from his favorite list. I hope the show will achieve what it set forth for and I wish all the best to the entire team.

Om Shanti Om - Music review

For my view on OSO movie click here. For music review, read on..

Friday's are the best days of anyone's life. I don't have to explain why. But one of the factors surely would be new movies and music which get released. In short entertainment unlimited. So what do we have in store this friday. None other than the Numero Uno star Shahrukh khan's Om Shanti Om music album. The one which everyone have been waiting for both in terms of movie and music. Farah Khan created magic with Main hoon na. Even the songs were fabulous. Good work by Anu Malik. Will the same repeat with Om Shanti Om ?? Will the soundtrack find equal success as MHN or more than that ?? Before I go into reviewing each and every song, I have to tell you that Indiafm has hyped the album a bit too much. I don't know how many times they heard the songs before coming to the conclusion they came to.

'Ajab Si' gives a subtle start to the album. Its a nice melody, although not as lilting and beautiful like Kabhi alvida na kehna's title or Main Hoon na's title track. The flute interlude which comes after the mukhda is very soulful. KK as usual is great in this song. But other than that I didnt find anything special in this song. Needs more listenings.

Moving on...next track is the more popular one 'Dard-e-disco', thanks to SRK who finally thought...enough is enough...every small bacha coming to bollywood is showing off their body and i'm just crying or romancing...lemme show the Manly side of myself :)..the song starts off surprisingly with the same tune as " De de pyar de pyar de pyar de re...humein pyar de " from Sharabi. And then Sukhwinder catches on..Once again not a great track. If it wasnt for SRK, I would just have passed on this song. I thought Kaal Dhamaal was a better item song. The video looks promising though, so we never know..in the theater this song might be rocking.

Now we come to my favorite song of the album 'Deewangi Deewangi'. A very catchy song, it keeps changing genres throughout the song. One time you hear bhangra beats and then you hear qawali. And this is the song which features the words Om Shanti Om. Shaan and Udit have sung very well and the whole arrangement gives a joyous celebration feel to it. This would be the song I'll wait to watch on the big screen ( coz i believe there's also Salman and Saif in this song )...I wanna see what would be the reaction in the crowd when SRK goes "All the hot girls put your hands up and say ...Om Shanti Om "...

Next song 'Main agar kahoon' starts with the bells/crystal tune which comes in the background of the first trailor, a beautiful start which is then followed by a mediocre tune quite effortlessly sung by Sonu Nigam. It felt like Vishal Sekhar wanted to give a retro melody with contemporary feel and ended up giving a song. Once again when related to Kal ho na ho or any other SRK's similar type songs, this one falls behind.

"Jag soona soona lage" starts off with the opening tune of Main agar kahoon. Must be a situational sad song which probably would go on in the background. Rahet Fateh ali khan did a wonderful job in Bol na halke halke from JBJ. And he renders beautifully in this one also. This has to be one of the well composed songs of the album. I've started luving this song more after repeated listenings.

"Dhoom tana" is a tailor made song for Madhuri or Sridevi. This song belongs to the 80s style. Nothing great again about this song, has a heard before tune. Abhijit sings the same way, be it any song. Instead VS should have used Udit...remember Kaike paan banaras waala...what energy he put into that song..I don't see that here. Passable song.

Dastaan-E-OSO is the theme song, where we get to hear the kahani of Om shanti Om..I feel Shaan is a misfit in this song..the words seem like its all about revenge and reunion, while his voice aint that powerful. But in the end the song conveys the message it was supposed to. This must be the first heavy orchestration done by V-S. May be this was the reason Farah wanted ARR to compose music...he would have broken all boundaries with this song.

Then come all the remix versions of which Dard-e-disco and Deewangi remix versions stand out.
The album ends with the beautiful Om Shanti Om theme music. For people who wanna burn cds of this album, my suggestion would be to put this theme music as the first track. Very nice and mellifluous tune. In future when anyone talks about OSO, people would relate to this tune.

So there you go...thats my impression of Om Shanti Om's soundtrack. I had lot of expectations which were not completely met. If ARR or Shankar ehsaan loy had composed the music, they would have taken it to a different level with lot of experimentation. The problem with V-S is their inconsistency. Some songs are very good while some are mediocre. And you don't want mediocre songs for big banner movies like Om Shanti Om. Nevertheless its gonna be a hit album, if not superhit, and I am still excited to watch the movie featuring 70s Elvis styled Shahrukh and the pretty Deepika, thanks to the colorful and vibrant promos.