Ishqiya

Vishal Bhardwaj's protégé Abhishek Chaubey makes his directorial debut with this village love story and gets his mentor to score the music, which is reason enough to review this album!

1. Dil to bachcha hai : Having an unmistakable Raj Kapoor feel to it, the song beautifully conveys Naseeruddin Shah's innocent, old fashioned view of love. Rahat Fateh Ali Khan takes a diversion from his usual melody-drenched offerings and gives us one of the best songs to have come out this year. Class act by the music director!

2. Ibn-E-Batuta : God knows what it means, but what we do know is that we have to give it to Vishal Bhardwaj for coming out with yet another imminent rural rollicking blockbuster that's going to send the masses into a frenzy like Beedi, Raat ke dhai baje etc did. And yeah, it's sung by Sukhwinder and Mika. Do I need to add anything more?

3. Ab mujhe koi : After two diverse tracks, here's a simple melody sung by the music director's wife Rekha Bharadwaj. Because it's way too simple for a Vishal Bhardwaj song, it doesn't make the kind of impact that the first 2 songs make, but it's not a bad song at all. It's just that it appears meek when compared to the previous songs.

4. Badi dheere jali : Rekha Bhardwaj couldn't get to sing Bhor bhaye(Delhi-6) as she had exhausted her quota with Aarti and Genda phool. Disappointed as she was, she asked her hubby to make up for it and he gave her this song! A super stunner in Subha Panthuvarali, Badi dheere is a gem of a song belonging to the endangered category of ragam based songs in commercial hindi cinema. Another class act!


Vishal Bhardwaj continues to surprise us with his sheer variety. As far as the quality and diversity of his work is concerned, I would say he is second only to A R Rahman. Three cheers to this largely unheralded hero!