Bipasha Basu, Dino Morea [her ex-beau] and John Abaraham [her current partner] are very much in the news. While John Abraham had a recent release in the form of 'Dhoom', both of them will be seen together shortly in 9/11 inspired 'Madhoshi'. Dino Morea too will be seen as a wife beater in 'Rakht' next week with Bipasaha who plays a Tarot card reader. If this was not enough then there is more to come with both pairing again opposite each other after 'Raaz' and 'Gunaah' in 'Chehraa', a mystery story produced by Dilkhush Doshi. Also starring Irrfan Khan in an important role, Chehraa is directed by Saurabh Shukla who made his directorial debut with ' Mudda ' starring Arya Babbar. In comparison ' Chehraa ' seems to be a much slicker product and much higher on the production values. Anu Malik's name on the album cover further establishes the credentials of the movie that is 'designed' by Amit Kapoor.

When Anu Malik is at the helm of affairs then one expects a mix of melody and some foot tapping numbers. But before we actually listen to Anu Malik, we have to wait for a while as the album begins with a composition from Nikhil Vinay. ' Mausam Ki Ijazat Hai ' is shot in romantic locations and the song's tune too compliments the situation. A nicely composed melodious number sung well by 'now established' Kunal Ganjawala and Shreya Ghoshal, who is fast becoming the sensual voice of Bipasha Basu, it also boasts of some good and simple lyrics by Sameer. A special mention to Shryea Ghoshal who brings an ideal mix of innocence and sensuality in the number! Overall a good romantic track that gives you exactly what you expected from an opening number of this album.

The wait for Anu Malik is over with ' Kabhi Khamosh Baithogi ', which is Anu Malik in his late 90s mould. A regular with Anu Malik, Rahat Indori, writes beautiful lyrics that support the romantic feel of the song. A slow and haunting love song, it is sung quite well by Babul Supriyo, who sounds like Kumar Sanu did in his earlier days, and Mahalakshmi. This is the one you would like to hear with your beloved on a candle light dinner.

' Chillake Chillake ' [that means 'by shouting'!] is a youthful, peppy, foot tapping number by pop group 'Viva' who sing to the tune of Anu Malik and lyrics by Sanjay Chhel. A song about rebellious youth, it is the one for the dance floors that make an instant impact and does not require a second hearing to be lapped up with both hands. 'Viva' sing in their trademark 'sugar'n'spice' naughty style and make a giant leap into playback singing. DJ Nikhil Chinnappa too chips in the remix version of this pop number and does a good job on that.

After all the 'shouting', comes ' Tabahee Tabahee ' that opens with such haunting effect that it may scare the hell out of a 5 year old. God knows whose vocals are behind the opening few moments but they are simply dreadful. Nevertheless Alisha Chinoy takes on from there in this item number that is hip-hop and looses its fizzle as soon as it begins. It doesn't take a few seconds into the number to completely discard it and move on due to the sheer boring and predictable nature of the number written by Dev Kohli. Add to it the frequent rendering of the words ' Tabahee Tabahee ' by some evil sounding vocal that has a heart crunching effect and make you go for the next track.

Thankfully melody makes a quick comeback with ' Khushboo Khayal Mein ' written by Zamir Qazmi that brings some sanity back to the album, which had a horrendous speed breaker in the shape of ' Tabahee '. Though the number isn't extraordinary to be nominated in all the awards ceremonies of 2004, it manages to keep your interest sustained in the album mainly due to some soulful light music by Anu Malik, good and 'not-so-routine' lyrics and some effective rendition by Alka Yagnik. There is some male chorus in the middle of the number that does sound annoying but that can be ignored keeping into consideration the overall song.

Composer Naresh Sharma and lyricist Dr. Deepak Sneh come together for ' Hadh Se Jyada Sanam ' that appears in a regular and sad version (and you expected something else from an album on T-Series?). While the sad version is a solo by Sonu Nigam, who is routine in his 'sad at heart' rendition, in the regular version he pairs up with Shreya Ghoshal. The result is an ordinary run of the mill score.

Ram Sampat, who had his moments of fame in his composition for ' Khakee ' earlier this year, has a single ' Teri Baahon Mein ' to his credit in ' Chehraa '. Both Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal are soft and restrained in this well worded romantic song by Sameer and effect is truly spellbinding. One honestly hopes this number to make it in the movie.

' Chehraa ' constitutes of some ordinary to average and good songs. Overall feel of the album is romantic with an exception of ' Chillake ' (a potential hit) and ' Tabahee ' (simply bad). But numbers like ' Mausam Ki Ijazat', 'Kabhi Khamosh ' and ' Teri Baahon Mein ' make up for the shortcomings in a couple of other ordinary tracks. The album turns out to be fine in the end with the kind of songs that you may want to hum around for a while.

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