MUSIC REVIEW: 8x10 Tasveer

When a movie director takes special interest in his film's soundtrack, it shows. Even more when the filmmaker happens to be a thinking man, as we learned with Anurag Kashyap's Dev.D and Gulaal. Nagesh Kukunoor has got three (four?) different dudes contributing to the soundtrack of his soon-to-hit-the-theatres Akshay Kumar starrer 8x10 Tasveer.

Irfan Siddiqui has written the lyrics to Nazaara Hai, which starts with a neat bassline. Vishal Dadlani sings Nazaara Hai, which has crisp sounding drums and is pretty catchy. Dadlani's voice has its limitations, a fact which the Pentagram vocalist seems to be well aware of - but he makes good use of whatever he can do with it. Nazaara Hai also has two guitar solos which have a funny tone. The break in the song sounds damn good, especially with the intro bassline and the drums coming in. Good job by Salim-Sulaiman, who've also composed the next song Haafiz Khuda.

Mohit Chauhan starts Haafiz Khuda in the most predictable way. Think Masakali from Delhi-6 and you'll know what I'm talking about. Salim-Sulaimman have made a wise move by pairing Mohit's voice with Tulsi Kumar's, as each complements the other. Irfan Siddiqui's words here, too. The word tasveer can be heard on both of Salim-Sulaiman's songs, the first boasting of elements of rock music and the second being a nice and mellow track.

'I don't wanna waste your time', Neeraj Sridhar sings Sameer's words on Aaja Maahi. Just when I'm about to turn my nose up in disgust at both the English language and a Hindi song being thrown together forcibly, Tulsi Kumar's voice comes in again. Neeraj and Tulsi have a highly listenable duet going on here. The lyrics, when in Hindi, are alright - I don't see why that wannabe cool English nonsense had to be used to introduce the song. Aaja Maahi is also a mellow track, and what's cool is it doesn't drag at all.

The tension builds up with the star track off the 8x10 Tasveer soundtrack - Bohemia's I Got The Picture. 'Aadmi khilona duniya ke khel mein', he says. Now, this is one guy who can teach Bollywood music directors the art of blending the great languages that are Hindi and English! 'Jaise nasha sharaab mein/ aur garmi aag mein', Bohemia pokes the boundaries set by Bollywood. 'Life is a game and we own the playground', he spits attitude. Now this is exactly what makes a 'good' soundtrack 'very good'.

Mohit Chauhan is doing his thing on Kuchh Is Tarah, another slow song with the tune of Haafiz Khuda with different lyrics - and a really good one. His voice suits the mellow stuff, but I fail to understand why he needs to start every song in that annoying manner. But Tulsi Kumar's singing along with him erases these minor complaints. The CD doesn't say who's composed the music or written the lyrics - but both are very good!

Now all these five tracks mentioned above have their remixes. DJ Amyth has done four of them, and Bohemia has remixed his own song. Not too much can be said about these remixes, except that techno beats have been added to all. Oh, well.

VERDICT: Nagesh Kukunoor's 8x10 Tasveer has an engaging soundtrack... and thumbs up to the Bohemia track!

RATING: 3.5/5

Click here to enjoy the music of Kukunoor's 8x10 Tasveer