By Ronak Kotecha, Bollywood Trade News Network

The music composers Nadeem Shravan and actor, Akshay Kumar are undoubtedly three people that the Darshans cannot do without. Dosti – Friends Forever, the title for their latest film could very well fit the camaraderie between these men. Lyricist Sameer is also an unchanged component of this group. Joining the team are Bobby Deol (immediate favorite after Akshay Kumar), Kareena Kapoor and Lara Dutta.

The title track, “Yeh Dosti” conveys the essence of friendship between the male leads of the movie. Udit Narayan and Sonu Nigam are near perfect in their rendition while the lyrics are aptly etched to bring out various connotations of friendship. The track could have been a winner except for the weak melody, which is soothing but not catchy enough.

“Dulhaniya” calls for some mandatory celebrations in this compulsive traditional saga of love and friendship. Apart from opulent attires and sets, the track is surprisingly beguiling and in sync with the needs of today’s ever demanding audience. Kunal Ganjawala successfully tones down his anglicized accent to coagulate with the stalwarts like Abhijeet and Alka Yagnik. A perfect dance number for this season of wed-locks across the country.

The pace and clatter of the previous track comes to a screeching halt with “Aisa Koi Zindagi Mein Aaye” where Abhijeet and Alka Yagnik solemnly express emotions. High on melody as well, the track is good as long as it lasts. Ditto for another intense experience in “Aur Tum Aaye,” where Sonu replaces Abhijeet.

Not the ones to take the accusations of being unadventurous and out of vogue lightly, the music crew of Dosti gets grooving with the beats of 2005 in “Lets Boogie Woogie.” Kunal Ganjawala gets a freeway to croon in his own inimitable western style along with Vasundhara Das who too is just as good. One Earl proves to be a good hold up for rapping in English, but with all this, there is only little attention that the track can garner audibly, but hopefully, would be a treat when audio-visualized.

A long relentless Qawalli that is shoved into the narrative is so typical of a Suneel Darshan movie. Who better than the two mutually competitive and complimentary singers, Sukhwinder Singh and Kailash Kher to execute this one. With all the elements of a good Qawalli, “Ishq Na Ishq Ho Kisi Se,” should hopefully start an upward trend of more such elements from the rich legacy of Indian music.

“Yaar Di Shaadi,” is an extension of the earlier celebratory track as this one is for the wedding bells where sure enough, a great friend would be happily sacrificing his love to his friendship. Average in all respects, the track is encumbered with vocals of Sonu Nigam, Abhijeet, Alka Yagnik and Nadeem Shravan's protégée Sarika Kapoor. 

Like always, Darshans have tried to get best of both the worlds (read Indian & Western) from their trusted music crew and succeeded to quite an extent. Despite of the star power and a fairly decent score, that one chartbuster track is quite evidently missing from the compilation and this could have a negative bearing on opening the fortunes of top-notch music sales for the album.