Game Over!

Shanker-Ehsaan-Loy are back in the house! This is a cliché that will be repeated often during the course of this year and GAME happens to be the second instance for 2011, the first one being Patiala House. Overall, don’t expect anything ground-breaking in terms of musical arrangement (or singing) as established from the opening and title song.

‘It’s A Game’ serves merely as a functional score, probably when the film credits are rolling on the screen. Vishal Dadlani does his bit and the track does not rise above its service of background music. SEL have employed a thin layer of electronic blips and beats to give it some kind of a dark edge but at the end of it all you will be left with a feeling of wanting more.

Shaan and the effervescent Anushka Manchanda step in for ‘Maine Yeh Kab Socha Tha’. It’s a love song which is gentle and soothing with an interesting string section that divides the song into 2 halves. It slows done considerably but Javed Akhtar’s English-Hindi lyrics hold it together somewhat. Typical SEL tune and sound that we have heard and enjoyed in Lakshya, Wake Up Sid etc, only a little worse.

Mehki Mehki comes in next and stirs the pot with its horns and piano. It’s quietly funky and finds its ballroom dancing feet when the chorus kicks in. The singing is all husky and whispery with Shreya Ghoshal and Kshitij Wagh on the mike but has too much of a western feel to make it count on the charts. Further down, ‘Kaun Hai Ajnabi’ finds Aditi Singh and K.K. doing an up-tempo pop number. Like the opening song, this one too sounds like a theme song, best used to maybe add some meaning to the trailer of the film. The song tries to be all mysterious and spooky but does not really go all the way. SEL need to figure out one main direction and stick to it instead of trying numerous styles, all in the same song.

Finally, one more thematic version of ‘It’s a Game’ is stuck at the end of the album. It’s obvious that GAME is no musical blockbuster. The songs are here just to adhere to the Bollywood formula and marketing purposes. Javed Akhtar’s lyrics seem almost lazy here with no great lines that leap out and stick in one’s head. It sounds like a classic case of probably having too many projects and deadlines for the composers. Don’t go out of your way for this one as no one is really winning anything here.