Challa offers an explosively catchy opening; perfect, heady Pritam number…right sound, great effect! Beyond that, Pritam opts for a melody overdose and does it damn well! Nikhil Dsouza aces Mere bina, better than Pritam-regular, KK, in the mistakenly-referred unplugged version! Mohit Chauhan’s version of Mere bina, titled Tujhko jo paaya, is the real unplugged version – serene and fabulously sung! Kya is a brilliant techno-melody, made with Neeraj Shridhar in mind and it sounds delightful, much like KK’s Tujhi mein, where Pritam’s orchestral skills come to the fore beautifully! Crook is vintage Pritam – lovely songs, instantly hummable and totally repeat-worthy!
Keywords: Pritam, Emraan Hashmi, Neha Sharma, Babbal Rai, Babbu Mann
PS: Challa is credited as ‘based on traditional folk song’. This is VERY similar to Khatta Meetha’s ‘Sajde’ being credited to yet another ‘traditional folk song’. This is NOT the right way to credit. If you cannot get the name of the artists – traditional folk songs have many artists and interpretations – at least name the song so that people know what you are talking about. I smell Bhatt Brothers’ brain working here very smartly – avoid plagiarism charges by crediting some damn thing. Sorry Mr Bhatt(s) and Pritam – this is still massive plagiarism. But yes, you’ve made some progress…from no-credit to half-credit…I’m sure we’ll all make you take the next step too. To know more on this song’s original, visit ItwoFS. And yes, the traditional ‘Challa’ sung by many people like Inayat Ali, Arif Lohar and Gurdas Mann is very, very different and not to be confused with Babbal Rai’s Australian Challa, on which Crook’s Challa is based.
