Remote Control- Antara Mitra Fan club

Hello : "Hello" comes out as telecom friendly number where bunch of youngsters share their dreams, vibes and thoughts in a "good-humored" and cheerful manner. Shaan's crazy way of style impresses as he sings in numerous vocal shades to exuberate youthful passions while communicating on a mobile phone. Sunidhi Chauhan's seductively played voice reverts in a "chic" mode with sensuous exclamatory whimpers infused in the interludes. It speaks of the fashionable trend of flaunting style of communicating or chatting through mobile phones among youths in their peculiar urban "Hinglish" lingo. Mayur Puri's lyrical flow is praiseworthy as it collages the jumbled mobile number digits with the frivolous teenage "chirpy" sentiments sung in playful "antaras". Pritam's music may not be great but delivers the stylish trend of high usage of mobile phones among the pop genre. "Hello" works more as promotional soundtrack or in end titles where there is depiction of a theme conceived through hip-shaking choreographic skills in a glossy manner.

Loving You : Pritam's association with Sonu Nigam has been modest as his chemistry with singers like KK, Shaan and James has roped tumultuous success in the past albums. After "Gumsum Hai Dil Mera" ('Kya Love Story'), the combination of singer and composer strikes another modest offering in "Loving You", a 60's style romantic crafted track with infused modern musical expertise. Sonu Nigam's enthused flamboyance has been ably shouldered with rhythmic variations, zingy sounds, stimulated beats and racy chorus in making it a discotheque special number. New singing talent Antara Mitra exudes the sense of femininity in her brief shrill rendition in the interludes. "Loving You" has the vintage musical feel of 60's romantic films with no great impact or histrionics. It's an average soundtrack where the musical work and impressive vocals work mechanically for the situation in the film.

Wanna Wanna : After energetic and vivacious "Hello", the combination of Shaan and Sunidhi Chauhan comes with more catchy beats in the cheerful and bouncy soundtrack "Wanna Wanna". It starts off with flute rendition followed by Shaan's cherubic singing colliding with groovy beats and thumping musical beats. Sunidhi's coarsely rendered vocals respond playfully along with high-pitched orchestration to deliver an upbeat zing. The "bhangra" musical bang is infused to catalyze the musical zest in the soundtrack with promising results. "Wanna Wanna" will be generating positive response from pop genre for its catchy musical mode but this isn't any chartbusting material.

Tikhi Tikhi (3 Versions) : Pritam, the mastermind behind plagiarizing many different genres of music in Bollywood, introduces "stomp" genre in the album through "Tikhi Tikhi". The number comes with three versions where two different styles of "stomp" music are imbibed to create innovate music appeal. After Zubeen Garg, Sohail and Soham, it's new talent Joy getting centre-stage as leading vocalist in the sensually pitched upbeat soundtrack "Tikhi Tikhi". After singing "Deewana Teri Aankho Ka" ('Kya Love Story Hai'), Joy's snazzy voice gets into the groove with loads of hip-hop musical thumps in the background. It has slow techno-generated Afro-American hip-hop feel where the sentimental vocals are mixed with sluggishly paced rhythmic beats, tangy electronic variations to give it a groovy feel on the floors. Joy's boyish vocals strike a flammable chemistry with enthused keyboard notes and bass synthesizer tunes in making this the finest track of the album.

"Tikhi Tikhi (Stomp Mix)" brings different types of stylized musical beats as the tempo of the song works at different beat per seconds with added enthused loud hip-hop rendition. The striking feature is its novelty quotient nurtured by Sachin Gupta's DJ skills but the disappointing aspect is that similar musical beat patterns return at a recurring pace. It may sound repetitive and tiresome to some extent and sounds more like copycat from American styled hip-hop album.

"Tikhi Tikhi (Stomp Mix 2)" brings different mode of beat patterns with dissimilar rhythmical variations in bringing out different music appeal to the ears. The accelerated tempo comes with compassionate flow of orchestration along with aggressively pitched hip-hop rendition in the backdrop. It works more on different percussive musical works by infusing different musical beats and rhythms.

Pritam's 'Speed' is neither extraordinary nor ground breaking effort in its rendition but an impressive musical endeavor promising lively entertainment for the multiplex listeners. The "stomp" genre will have its advocates and adversaries but overall it sounds similar to earlier heard hip-hop numbers with different musical arrangements. The soundtracks "Hello", "Wanna Wanna" are impressive while "Tikhi Tikhi" (all 3 versions) can be a surprise package in coming days.

Film: Speed

Producer: Harry Baweja

Director: Vikram Bhatt

Music Director: Pritam

Lyrics: Mayur Puri

Cast: Zayed Khan, Sanjay Suri, Aftab Shivdasani, Aashish Chaudhary,Sophie Chaudhary, Amrita Arora, Urmila Matondkar, Tanushree Dutta

Rating: 1.5/5

Vikram Bhatt's last film Life Mein Kabhie Kabhiee, did not manage to create a storm at the box office, and in an effort at doing just that, he is back with Speed.

On the other hand, music director Pritam has been managing well, basking in the glory of the music of his films. Besides Speed, he is seen at the music master's seat for forthcoming films like Awarapan, Naqaab, Bhool Bhulaiya and Dhol. Sadly, this one is way off Pritam's target of the regular chartbusters.

Plain ridiculous is what you'd call the opening track of the album. Hello, rendered by Shaan and Sunidhi, is all but pleasant. Crammed with meaningless lyrics, funny noises and one background voice who feels it's necessary to respond to every line. Beautiful, soulful voices are drowned in this noisy track. Miss out this one.

Considering you have skipped the first track, your album begins with Wanna Wanna. Once again, Shaan and Sunidhi are at the helm of affairs. An average, listenable track is what you could call it at best. There is far too much playing in this track, far too many variations in five minutes it lasts. From all that you can hear from the singers, they do a stupendous job at rendering the song and by far, are the only soft element in the track.

The best track in the album is Tikhi Tikhi, maybe that explains the need for it to appear thrice in various versions throughout the album. The Tikhi Tikhi [Stomp Mix] is fast and has club beats running through it from start to end. Joy croons this song perhaps the way it was meant to be, but it's the 'Wohoaas' and the manufactured music that scores here. If once was not enough, the stomp Mix is back again as the finale number of the soundtrack, so it's a skip, if you manage not to like it.

As soon as the Stomp Mix comes to a close, the non contorted version begins to play. Joy is at the vocals here too, excels, with no instrumentalist drowning his voice with their sounds. The pace has been reduced and all the razzmatazz put into it is gone, what is left is a sweet and likeable track. Speed (below the permitted limit) around with your friends and let the music play!

Loving you, by Antara Mitra and Sonu Nigam, is that love laden track that every album has one of. Forgoing the constant 'loving you' Nigam sings, this track has a nice feel to it. His melodious voice makes this song a good hear. Mitra, with the softness in her voice, creates a pleasant change. Though there is no zing, there is yet a unique feel and flavor to it, so hear it.

With one song repeated thrice and one track that can very well be skipped, there is not much this album offers. If someone hands you the CD consider it your luck, but don't go searching for it.