Murder, Girlfriend, Hawas, Julie, Tauba Tauba and now Ab...Bas ! And one doesn't need to be a Nostradamus to predict what's common in all these flicks. All of these flicks have worked at the box-office, though at different levels ranging from Super-Hit to average. This must be a relieving factor for producer Raju Mavani and director Rajesh Singh. Starring popular model Shawar Ali ( Hawas, Asambhav, 99.9 FM ) and Diana Hayden, who made a forgettable debut with Tehzeeb , Ab..Bas has been a low profile project that has music by slowly but steadily rising Daboo I Malik and lyrics by Sameer.

There won't be a single soul who wasn't touched by the smoothing melody of ' Bheege Honth Tere ' from ' Murder '. There is a chance to listen to a slightly different version from Daboo Malik's angle in ' Tu Ishq Mera Hai ' sung again by Kunal Ganjawala and Kalpana. The composition, that also make a reappearance as an Instrumental (Remember, the music company is T-Series!), is obviously impressive as Daboo very cleverly builds a tune around the same mood and theme. If only one hadn't heard ' Bheege Hoth ' before, this must have been counted as a splendid effort by Daboo.

Kalpana makes an appearance again for the solo ' Mohabbat Karke ', an item song picturised on Nigar Khan. The number is a fast paced and reminds of the cabaret numbers from the early 80s. Lyrics are predictable but Kalpana's accented rendition makes the number enjoyable to an extent. One just wishes the number was more classily shot as the portions beamed on the air at the moment do not make for an impressive viewing. Shaan appears a few songs later to do his take on the same number and sings with an added zest that brings a smile. One hopes this version appears in the movie.

Mood of lust and desire continues with ' Ishara Ishara ' sung by Sunidhi Chauhan. To give due credit to Daboo, the musical arrangements are good but lyrics like ' Hothon Ka Jadoo, Sanson Ki Khushboo, Pyaasa Badan, Jawaani Diwani ' and some more similar stuff restrict the number to a particular mood and audience.

Daboo Malik's style of melody is evident in ' Tere Chehre Pe ' that follows the routine way of Bollywood romance and mush and succeeds for its genre. It is amazing to see that Udit Narayan, who must have sung at least a thousand such songs still sounds as fresh as he was a couple of decades back. Another nice thing is to see Shreya Ghoshal coming a long way since her ' Devdas ' days and now completely settled to do playback for a Hindi movie heroine. From here on she should give some good competition to Alka Yagnik, who gets the maximum songs to sing when it comes to ' Pyaar Mohabbat ' routine. Anuradha Paudwal, who doesn't get many such numbers but is still sailing along, tries to makes her presence felt in her take on ' Tere Chehre Pe' with Udit again. Well, we may listen to the version by Shreya instead, who sounds far more fresh and unpredictable!

The only track that fails to add any value to the romantic mood created in ' Ab Bas ' comes towards the end as ' Kabhi Bindiya Banke '. Predictable to the 'T' and boring, it is yet another saga about ' Bindiya', Kangana', 'Choodi', 'Paayal ' and other such ornaments that doesn't interest anyone in particular! Thankfully Kumar Sanu makes his only appearance towards the latter half of the song that makes the song bearable. The same tune could have been more productive if only the lyrics were different!!

With an exception of ' Kabhi Bindiya ', most of the other songs and their versions do keep one engaged during the entire duration of the album. One didn't expect anything at all from the music of a movie with a theme like this, a low profile production and an ordinary starcast. But full marks to Daboo Malik who livens up the situation with a couple of humable tunes. He doesn't try his hands at doing something different but sticks to a basic formula and scores there. ' Ab Bas ' can be heard a few times at least!!

ALBUM RATINGS

Music  :  N.A Lyrics  :  N.A Vocals  :  N.A Overall Rating  :