Music Review: Payback

EXPECTATIONS Last quarter of 2010 is seeing a strange phenomenon. Week after week, there are at least three to four films releasing out of which at least a couple belong to the kind that have either been brought out of cold storage or have come out of thin air without any buzz whatsoever. Payback is one such film about which absolutely nothing is known. Due to this low awareness, one doesn’t have any clue around what to expect from this film with an unknown cast, crew and music department which is led by composers Dev Shikandar and Vijay Narayan. Since the film is an action drama, one would have expected a racy track to kick start the proceedings. However, to one’s pleasant surprise, it is a soft love song that actually opens the album. ‘Jane Kab’, though belonging to the late 90s/early 2000s, is not a bad hear at all and for those who like their music to bear that quintessential Bollywood lovey-dovey stamp, this Vijay Narayan is a decent outing after all. Irfaan Shaikh’s lyrics just about pass muster though rendition by Vaishali Samant and Ashish Om is okay. Still, from an album where one wasn’t expecting much to begin with, ‘Jane Kab’ is a bonus.

MUSIC From hereon, the album starts sticking to it’s core theme with Dev Shikandar composed ‘Jee Le’ being the first to arrive. Dev writes as well as sings this song (along with Payal) which was always expected from a soundtrack like Payback. An item number with a touch of philosophy to it (about living life, taking a stance, the works), ‘Jee Le’ is as 80s as it gets and doesn’t bring in anything new whatsoever. Barely passable while following the template of dozens of such songs that have been composed for movies of this genre and scale, ‘Jee Le’ also sees a ‘remix version’ for itself. Kukku Prabhas writes ‘Taqdeer Ki Sadak Pe’ which has Kunal Ganjawala at the helm of affairs. It’s beginning in fact reminds one of ‘Tu Hi Meri Shab Hai’ [Gangster] and if one hears it closely, one can well sense a Bhatt influence to it, whether musically, lyrically or rendition wise. Yet another track with philosophical undertones, this composition by Vijay Narayan should manage to keep the audience engaged as it plays as a part of the background score of the film.What follows next turns out to be a ho-hum affair yet again with Suraj Jagan coming up with ‘Road Pe’. The song instantly reminds one of the title track of Vivek Oberoi starrer Road which was a far better and ferocious composition. This one with music and lyrics by Dev Shikandar is hardly exciting despite a ‘remix version’ for itself and makes one move on to check out the last song in the album. It’s a two minute ‘Playback – Theme’ piece that brings the album to a close. With a haunting feel to it, it is a well laid out piece that should add value in the film’s background to bring on an element of mystery and intrigue to the narrative.

OVERALL Since Payback didn’t come with any expectation, a couple of decent tracks like ‘Jane Kab’ and ‘Taqdeer Ki Sadak Pe’ turn out to be fair deals after all. However, lack of awareness around the overall product means that there are near to negligible chances of these songs too managing to make their presence felt. OUR PICK(S) ‘Jane Kab’