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The first thing that strikes you about Himesh Reshammiya's debut album (Aap Ka Surroor; T-Series; 2-CD pack; Rs 135) is the title, with the respectful Aap..., but nowhere in the title song is Aap used; it's Tera surroor throughout. Poets, we are told, know no grammar, but this seems to be quite a Line of No-control! Maybe, it has something to do with Himesh's Freudian penchant for tera, because it's the catchword not only in Tera, tera...surroor, but also in the next chartbuster, Naam hai tera, tera...tera, tera, tera.
But the album, with lyrics by Sameer, has 'hit' written all over it and is already blazing up the charts. Not the least because of Prashant Chadha's videos, like, he's got the next hot thing to take her first step towards Bollywood by wafting through the video of Naam hai tera: Deepika Padukone!
You have heard of Mukesh being the Voice of Raj Kapoor and Udit Narayan the Voice of Aamir Khan and Abhijeet the Voice of Shah Rukh, and so on. But now Himesh has set the trend of being the Face & Body of Whoever (that, being Emraan Hashmi). Get the cap and stubble and denim jacket scene? Then the Pakistani singers/Kunal Ganjawala's distinct nasal tone, which extends from Hashmi's earlier films to Himesh's Aksar and Aashiq Banaya Aapne songs (music and voice, himself) and this album.
Strange, because Himesh took off from the springboard of buddy Salman Khan's films and established himself with the repeated strains of odhni, chunar, chunariya; oh, yeah, Reshammiya's chunariya kind of sounds ! Now he has shifted gears into disco numbers with a nasal love message that would make any Punjabi pop — not papaji — singer, this side of Mika, proud!
The album pack is of 2 CDs with one of them having nine remixes and seven unplugged versions — value for money. But therein also lies the problem. Why stuff one album with as many as 11 (plus 16) numbers, when you've got a handsome clutch of winners with half of them? A pointer is Mere lamhon ki aarzoo which is a good 'heavy' lyric, but gets completely submerged in this 'club' album. And the second half of the CD has primarily Punjabi pop numbers which could have made a separate album of another particular mood.
The surroor takes over with the first (title) number and builds up into a nice high with the second, Naam hai tera, being an outstanding number. But it gets monotonous and watered down by the time the third comes on and definitely by the time you reach the 10th, Wada tainu (there you are, Punjabi!) which is a tabla-dholak number, and winds up, literally, with Nachle it's folkish (don't ask us what that means), but it's full of — not balle balle, but aaho aaho aaho!
Like you have, I love you Sayyoni, koi shaque? as the fourth number, and the seventh, Aashiqana hai dil, starts off with a Bhangra touch but veers off into a quasi-Sufi style. But the next, Chhed de pyaar di baat, begins with a Ladies and gentlemen intro, moves into Punjabi groove — Angrez de puttar kind of thing, oye yaaar! — and even incorporates a ladies' sangeet (no, Babul and bidaai) clip!
The remixes are done by DJ Akbar Sami, Nikhil Chinappa and DJ Aqueel. And hats off to Himesh for his excellent up-and-down voice modulation. But then he is a music director, after all. But having proved a point as a singer, he should unplug his nose and let loose his throat.
A word, and some, about the inlay: attractive, and very SMS- and ringtone-friendly with the cover even carrying the bottomline prominently, asking certain cellphone subscribers to call up for 'hello tunes at...' Hello, hello!
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