Wafaa

One look at the promo of Wafaa and one can’t help but feel sad for Rajesh Khanna. To see the man who ruled during the late 60s and early 70s in a film like Wafaa is indeed disappointing. No wonder, expectations are at an all time low from the film’s music which has been composed by Ravi Pawar & Sayed Ahmed with lyrics by Shahab Allahabadi. A kind of tune which has it’s roots in Nadeem Shravan brand of music from the early and mid-90s, ‘Bhula Sako To’ sees Udit Narayan crooning for the protagonist man who is questioning his lady love about forgetting him. Well, the tune is so boring and listless that it would have been rejected by even Nadeem Shravan and dumped in the cans. Moving at a slow pace, it fails to have any redeeming factor in spite of Udit Narayan at the helm of affairs. Write your own music review of Wafaa The qawalli ‘Husn Hai’ which follows next has such lowly music arrangements that one feels that performances in private parties and weddings have much better production values. Sabri brothers Aftab Hashmi Sabri and Hashim Sabri come together to appreciate a woman’s beauty but the tune itself is so boring that one doesn’t even worry much about concentrating on the lyrics. Hear it once and one can bet that you won’t feel like revisiting the song again.

The mood suddenly changes as an amalgamation of Western and Middle-East rhythm gives a start to ‘Muztarib’. Well, does it help elevate the album to any level whatsoever? No, not at all, in spite of the presence of Mika Singh and Akruti Kakkar. Yet again, it is lack of production values and a predictable/boring tune which causes most harm here. An item song expected to be pasteurized on the younger couple in the film; it may just hold some portion of interest from the audience if coupled with skin show in ample display. The album continues to keep it’s listener truly disinterested with the love song ‘Raste Roshan Huye’ being so lifeless that one would rather sip coffee in a cafe than hold the hands of the loved one and sing this song around the trees! What surprises though is to see singers like Sunidhi Chauhan and Rahul Vaidya agreeing to a number like this which has a completely outdated tune and lyrics. It’s the sound of a saxophone which kick starts ‘Sargarmiyan’, a supposedly ‘song of seduction’. Well, by that time one is truly exasperated and it is difficult to sit through the rest of the album. Jaya Piyush is asked to come behind the mike for this number that has been beaten to death for more than three decades now with newer styles taking over the music scene. Still, the composers of Wafaa continue to be stuck in a time warp and the result is a song like this. The only number which (just about) manages to hold your attention, and that too if you are a Kumar Sanu fan, is ‘Tere Bagair’. In fact it brings in a sense of nostalgia to see Rajesh Khanna lip synching to this number which could well have had Kishore Kumar at the helm who had given dozens of hits with him in the 70s. Later, newcomer Pronali Chaliha joins in too and she too comes up with a decent performance. A love song, it has a Nadeem Shravan hangover to it and if released in the mid 90s, it could well have become quite popular. ‘Tu Hi Shola’ tries to be a fusion number by bringing in Indian classical elements into lounge and in the process falls flat on its face. Ok, so the number may have been crooned by Kailash Kher but that’s hardly a consolation since (yet again) the lack of production values are much more than just being visible. Also, the basic premise of the song is nothing less than annoying, hence making ‘Tu Hi Shola’ pretty much staring at the bottom of the pit! Final assault comes in the form of the title song ‘Wafaa’ which is so screechy that you instantly wish to get rid of the music CD pronto.

With a Middle East base to it, ‘Wafaa’ crooned by Kalpana could well have been rejected even by the TV serials that may have thought of playing it during the opening credits. A theme song, it tries to be all passionate and vibrant but doesn’t quite succeed! Chances are that you won’t bother listening to the music of Wafaa. And even if you do, it would require quite some courage to listen to it the second time around. Easily, one of the most forgettable soundtracks of not just 2008 but also Rajesh Khanna’s career.