Phir Kabhi

EXPECTATIONS One can’t be expected to get excited when presented with the music of Phir Kabhi. After all the film comes out of nowhere, features the likes of Mithun Chakraborty, Dimple Kapadia and Rati Agnihotri which pretty much conveys that the film is centered on the lives of senior citizens and doesn’t carry any buzz with it. Moreover, there is no promotion yet for the film even as the album is out. Yes, the album carries the name Shantanu Moitra as the composer and Ajay Jhingran as the lyricist but that’s not really good enough to make one look for a moon with Phir Kabhi. And yes, a dull title doesn’t help the cause either.

MUSIC Phir Kabhi is a short album with only four songs in it. ‘Dekho Jo Dekho Main Hoon Bhola Bhala Banda, Aankhon Se Phenkun Seedhe Dil Pe Ye Fanda’ – These are the lyrics of the opening number ‘Dekho Ji Dekho’ which is as screechy a beginning for an album as it gets! Dibyendu Mukherji begins the assault and Sunidhi Chauhan takes it forward in this song which comes across as a confused composition. The number tries to bring in the style from the 60s and today with an element of jazz to it. Result? A lot of noise which is best left ignored. Next to come is the title song ‘Phir Kabhi’ which is reasonably better though only in the parts where Shaan is heard. Shantanu Moitra himself comes for some interludes but hardly helps the song with his rendition that appears to be based on folk music. The song too by itself is completely situational and is yet another track that one wishes to move on pronto. Lyricist Ajay Jhingran decides to sing ‘Bhai Re’ which is set in the mode similar to that of many a Shantanu Moitra tunes. With Shreya Ghoshal joining him, Ajay continues imparting Bengali flavour to it. An old fashioned number that just manages to hang on, ‘Bhai Re’ isn’t any different from what one has heard in Shantanu’s earlier albums like Parineeta or Lage Raho Munnabhai. Last to come is ‘Jheeni Jheeni’ that has Bhupinder Singh coming along with Hamsika Iyer. An extremely slow moving track that is almost an unplugged truck, this love song follows ‘Bhai Re’ in its overall treatment. Picking on from where ‘Piyu Bole’ [Parineeta] left, ‘Jheeni Jheeni’ is barely passable this time around and only becomes boring as it progresses. Rest of the album is filled with Shantanu’s earlier compositions from Welcome To Sajjanpur (‘Sita Ram Sita Ram’, ‘Dildara’) and Lage Raho Munnabhai (title song, ‘Pal Har Har Pal’).
 
OVERALL Phir Kabhi doesn’t work. For a very miniscule segment of audience searching for folk and classical flavour in their music, a couple of tunes from Phir Kabhi may cut the ice. But for the masses, there is absolutely nothing to pick and choose from.