Music Review: Life in a ... Metro

Life in a ... ummm ....ahemmmm ... Metro. Like skunk's ( I meant KANK) extra marital affairs, Corporate's sleaze, Page 3's horrid truth, Metro's urban affairs is another attempt to showcase the lives of several leads in a metropolitan city. Cast includes Shiney Ahuja, Shilpa Shetty, Kay Kay Menon, Sharman Joshi, Gautam Kapoor, Konkona Sen Sharma, Kangna Ranaut, Irrfan Khan. Quite an impressive cast indeed. Directed by Anurag Basu and music score by Pritam.

Shiney Ahuja, quite a misnomer! His movies, all of them are always dark, brooding, lovelorn, yet brilliant, quite shiny figuratively. I read the plot and it was confusing, and hard for me to fathom who fell in love with whom, who is sleeping with who, so on so forth. I will leave it to you to view and make some sense out of it albeit the music, is very sensible.

Here it is.

In dino

A lovely song, sung by Soham, written by Syed Quadri. Quite a soft rock ballad it is, urges to celebrate life, dream big, live a little, love a lot and discover yourself. Very spirited tune and the guitar accompaniment compliments it quite well. I so hope it is picturized on Shiney himself in a mumbai train, with his lovely smirk. A second version is 'revisted' by Bunty Rajput, which serves well for a lounge mix at the bars, but takes away the sweetness of the song.

Alvida

Another beautiful song, sung by KK, written by Amitabh Verma. The lyrics are quite refreshing, the tune however is not very new. Punn intended on the word Alvida throughout the song. The mix is slightly classical and mainly rock. A reprise version is sung by James. An instant deja-vu. James sang Chal chale for Woh Lamhe and became my instant favorite. In this, he sounds exactly like how he did in the song "hamari adhoori kahani, bheegi bheegi" from Gangster, the same anger, the same pining, in essence, not new at all.

O meri jaan

This is a romantic song, sung by KK, and is quite scandalicious. Dil khudgarz hai, kal tak uss ka tha, aaj raat se tumhara, ooh la la! Well suited for all the casanova's out there. Tu nahi koi aur sahi, koi aur nahi, toh koi aur sahi. Very young at heart and gets nice and peppy as well towards the end. A reprise version is sung by Suhail Kaul, very charming.

Rishtey

Another rock song sung by James, this had me tune out. By now I had too much rock and 'twas quite repetitive and sounds off key as well. James's voice is wasted well in this non-inspirational song, although the lyrics by Syed Quadri are quite apt. Rishtey is 'revisted' by DJ Nikhil Chinappa and DJ Naved. Tuned out again.

Baatein kuch ankahee si

Wow! Just when I was writing the rest of the album off, a surprise. Lovely, very lovely song, sung by Suhail Kaul who has a pure teenager touch in his vocals. The mellow guitar work and the lovely organ leads make this song perfect for a senior prom dance. A second version is sung by Adnan Sami who brings in vocal punch, adults! you are allowed to dance too. Lyrics by Sandeep Srivastava are lively as well. Adnan Sami's version is revisited by DJ A-Myth.

Kar Salaam

A band performance with Suhail, Soham and Pritam himself on the vocals. Perhaps the only fun track in the album with lighthearted lyrics by Syed Quadri.

Overall, a nice album with two clear winners, In dino and Baatein kuch ankahee si. Rest of them suffer from too much of a rock hangover. Pritam is known for his rock rhythms but, it may not be required to compose each song to be an ultimate rock ballad. Guitar work gets quite repetitive towards the end and having a reprise and remix for almost every song does not help the cause either. Shiney Ahuja has been a lucky guy, perhaps his charm will take the music much higher than where it sits right now.

My *** stars.