Let me begin by saying that for me this was one of the most awaited albums in recent times! And so when the album was out I went scrambling to get the music.
I had caught glimpses of 'Sajda' on TV and the audio lived up to all the expectations - it is absolutely exquisite! Two fabulous and powerful voices, those of Raahat and Richa Sharma give us this amazing qawali! With of course the excellent as ever Shankar coming in, in the backing vocals. Great composition by Shankar-Ehsan- Loy totally seeped in the flavours of the Karan Johar camp of music! You'd want to put this song on loop for a while!!!
The next song 'Noor - E - Khuda' will make you close your eyes as it starts off with one of the cleanest & purest voices we have, yes that of Shankar Mahadevan! Adnan Sami joins him in the song adequately enough (though better choices of singers do flash across the mind for this beauty of a song!). Shreya comes in at the end - with the sheer beauty of her voice ringing out. However I felt that the scale was probably 1 notch too high for her which made her sing in a falsetto in the high notes towards the end, which ruined her bit, somewhat for me!
'Tere Naina' starts of like 'Tumhi Dekho Na' from Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, also the choice of Shafqat Amanat Ali reminds you somewhat of the same album. However, that doesn't take even a bit away from this wondrous eulogy to the heroine's eyes (I assume!). One can almost visualise all of Shahrukh's nuances on screen in this song, it has been sung so completely keeping him in mind!Fabulous rendition by Shafqat Amanat Ali.
'Allah Hi Rahem' is the one which is a tad disappointing. It somehow isn't able to effectively capture the brilliance of Ustad Rashid Khan's vocals.
What really makes one hold Shankar-Ehsan-Loy in higher esteem is the 'Khan Theme' which is quite a beautiful and inspiring musical piece. Bravo!
In 'Rang De Aman Se Asmaan'we finally catch a glimpse of the Rock musicians in Shankar-Ehsan-Loy. The use of the high hat in this beautiful song is especially lovely and the lyrics of this one, especially striking! However, Shankar's alaap here is rather similar to that taken by Shafqat Amanat Ali in 'Mitwa' (Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna again!
All in all the music is adequately good, that befitting a Karan Johar film, however, maybe it doesn't stretch to a big WOW! Is it the play of expectatons? Maybe! But one can keep hoping that the album will grow on me in such a way that I'd have to take that back!