At an age when it maybe termed uncool in Bollywood's contemporary musical lexicon, Sanjay Leela Bhansali continues to embrace the traditional Hindi film music melodies as he does with 'Ang laga de and Dhoop'.

The next, 'Laal ishq', emanates the kind of purity we had heard in Guzaarish's 'Tera zikr hai' ­ the interlude is very similar to Saawariya's 'Mashallah.' Possibly this is the best song of the album  Arijit Singh is making it a habit to get the best tunes.

One of the perks of a Bhansali soundtrack is getting to hear Shail Hada's voice. Hada, who had sung Saawariya title sings 'Poore chand,' a song bathed in the kind of luminosity typical of Bhansali's deep, dark haunting melodies, with full-throttled clarity, poise and range.

Where a couple of songs  'Ishqyaun dhishqyaun, Mor bani thangat kare' and 'Lahu munh lag gaya' suffer from is unimaginative arrangement.

It's too close to the authentic garba/ dandiya orchestra for its own good; and something like Amit Trivedi's contemporary twists done in Kai Po Che's Shubhaarambh would have done wonders.

Comparisons with 'Dhol baaje' from 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam' are inevitable, and 'Nagada sang dhol' does sound similar in parts.

'Ram chahe Leela', is the contemporary song of the album, that has words like 'dono ke love mein duniya ka kya kaam.' Sung by Bhoomi Trivedi, it is a racy number that is possibly the supposed item song to be featured on a top female star.

'Tattad tattad' mostly takes shape around its infectious hookline, and does little with the rest.

Aditya Narayan does all the right things but ends up sounding like Udit Narayan Junior.

Much like his last film and his first outing as a music director 'Guzaarish,' Ram Leela is the kind of an album that lingers on.

... contd.

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