Dus Kahaniyaan -- the world's first three-disc soundtrack

A lounge version, a club version, and a version with poems. Three discs to a soundtrack is not only rather unusual, it is the world's first. That distinction will forever remain with Sanjay Dutt's upcoming film Dus Kahaniyaan. A film to absolutely look forward to given that it has, as the title suggests, ten plots running in parallel (remember Salaam-e-Ishq, Silsilay, etc. that had similar themes with unrelated stories running alongside each other). On a side note, wasn't it Dil Chahta Hai (2001) that was the innovator in this case, with three stories (albeit related), and then Yuva (2002), which seemed like Dil Chahta Hai's out-of-sorts extension?

Moving on to the soundtrack of Dus Kahaniyaan...it has behind it four composers: Gaurav Dasgupta, Shafqat Ali Khan, Anand Raaj Anand, Bappa Lahiri; two lyricists: Virag Mishra, Panchhi Jalonvi; and poems written by none other than Gulzar sahab.

Here are some of my highlights, segmented by disc:

CD 1 - Lounge
A mixed bag of slow and fast tracks, of good and decent lyrics, and of rather good music. Dus is a good track with vocals by K.K., but the one who steals the show here is femal vocalist Anchal, whose voice is absolutely perfect for the track.

Jaaniye -- my favorite -- is a beautiful dance track, with both Anchal and none other than Sunidhi Chauhan providing the vocals. Amazingly well put together.

Aaja Soniye and Nachle Soniye are decent attempts at 'hatke' music, but they end up sounding too cliche. Not among my favorites. O Maahiyaa is another very very good track. Sung by K.K. and Shweta Vijay, its original version is just too classy. Bhula Diya is the other track on this disc that is worth praising. Although as a complete package (i.e. the combination of music and lyrics), the poetry that is its subject is quite beautiful.

CD 2 - Club
There is not one song in this album that was not in the first disc (lounge version). So this is basically a set of six remixes. Nice remixes, I might add. A few friends and I played it last Saturday night while on our way to a party, and it set the tone well. If the goal was to strike a chord with the club-going generation, it was met!

CD 3 - Poems
By far the most unique, meaningful and thought-provoking disc of the set. I am still taken aback by the depth of the poetry and the eloquence of the presentation and language that is used. Poetry that makes sense. What adds to it is that the vocals to each poem (there are 11 in all, at least one for each sub-plot) are recited by the members of the film's cast, with background music (classical, jazz, you name it) like hand in glove. Absolutely different, and absolutely effective!


Overall Music Rating: ***1/2 (VERY VERY GOOD!)

A rather complete album with something for everyone. While discs 1 and 2 are what they say they are (hip and urban), disc 3 will blow you away with sheer greatness and uniqueness.