Chandni's audio review in Filmfare: August 1989: Sri Joins the Off Key Club: Subash K Jha fires shots!

Well, during the summer of 1989, a few months before the film's release, HMV released the audio of the highly anticipated Yash Chopra film, Chandni. Box-office and reviews aside, the Yash Raj stamp of exquisite, timeless melodies and music was well known to all aficionados. But Shiv Hari outdid themselves with the chart busters . Almost all songs and lyrics were universally praised - Lata Mangeshkar in divine form, Suresh Wadkar's impressive solo, the profound lyrics by Anand Bakshi. 

All were exceptionally received by the critics - well, all but one; the infamous title song crooned by Jolly Mukherjee and the leading lady herself, Sridevi. The fans made the Sridevi song top the charts but... its a fun beat sure... a little shrill! Sridevi herself blushed when the song came up - unlike her contemporaries, she could call out her own clunkers with no hesitation. 

Subash K Jha - the feared critic who held the Filmfare review page hostage with his poison pen for years - went hammer and tongs after Sridevi's vocals. Sridevi, incidentally, is Jha's favourite actress - not singer! 

That's the thing about fandom, it can't be blind devotion. That's enslavement that we don't approve of - of anyone. Let alone, our all-time favourite actress, "the great Sridevi!". 

Excerpt from Filmfare: 

She: "Ankhiyan mein tu bass ja ankhiyan mein band kar loon." 

He: "Tahreko inankhiyan se baatein main chand kar loon." 

That's Bollywood's no. 1 lyric writer Anand Bakshi in Shiv-Hari's score of Chandni (HMV). This santoor player-flautist team has by now become the hallmark of Yash Chopra's films. As usual, their music is neither unimpressive nor enormously impressive. What strikes one about the moonlit score is the poetry - simple and graceful, utterly to-the-point. Lata gives body to the score in four numbers. She sounds like Dimple Kapadia in Bobby (in short, sweet and all of sixteen) in Mere haathon mein. The tune's naughty - imagine a near-60 Lata singing "Mere dorzee se aaj meri jung ho gayee/Kal choli silayee aaj lung ho gayee"! None of her aggressive juniors could have conveyed that captivating innocence in such saucy words. 

Some of Shiv-Hari's tunes are like Khayyam's, on one of his "off" days: Lata's Aa meri jaan, Suresh Wadkar-Nitin Mukesh's Tu mujhe suna and specially Lata-Vinod Rathod's Mehbooba. But the duo emerges with flying colours in the hilly-billy Mithwa where Lata sings like a solitary thrush,

But Sridevi's attempt at "singing"... excuse me while I splutter... in Chandni meri Chandni reminds you how skilled Sharda/Hemlata/Shabbir and the other members of the off-key club are. Co-singer Jolly (Dayavan) Mukherjee tries his utmost to steer the tune but fails. 

Asha Bhosle breezes in for only one song Parbat se kaali ghata (a duet with Vinod Rathod) and leaves you hankering for more. Since Yash Chopra has been persistently trying to mould Shiv-Hari in the Khayyam style ever since the director and composer parted ways after Kabhi Kabhie (the incomparable composer did score for Chopra's Trishul and Sawaal but only half-heartedly), I wonder why they split in the first place!