By Subhash K. Jha, IANS

Fresh talent fails to imbue freshness to the sound in this sweet but finally unproductive soundtrack. Of course it's a blessing to get an album where the sound is tonally textured to serenade softness.

The tracks are subdued and shaded to offset the onslaught of noisy over-orchestrated babble-bouncers, which seem to please filmmakers and composers of today.

Vinod Chopra's always likes to go for the skill. His music for PARINDA, KAREEB and MISSION KASHMIR was pleasant soothing but not outstanding. Chopra's 1942 - A LOVE STORY was every bit a musical landmark, one of the finest movie soundtracks of the 1990s.

If you're searching for that old-world charm in the melodies design which made R.D. Burman's sounds in 1942 so special, then you'd perhaps like to stopover at PARINEETA for a pert peep. But if you hope to hear what Arun Kumar Mukherjhee did with the old version of PARINEETA or even Kalyanji-Anandji did in SANKOCH (again based on Parineeta), then the sound of the music in the newest version of the Sarat Chandra classic seems so Halka, almost weightless in sound.

While one could walk the wispy waltz with R.D. Burman's 'Ek Ladki Do Dekha' or 'Kuch Na Kaho' in 1942, efforts to recreate the nostalgia and grace from an era gone-by in PARINEETA are largely sterile.

Shreya Ghosal, though sweet-toned is no Lata Mangeshkar to carry an entire album on her frail shoulders. She and Sonu Nigam are in filigreed form in 'Piya Bole' (where you also get to hear Saif Ali Khan unbilled, oh lucky listeners!), 'Kasto Mazza' (superb use of the sound of a chugging locomotive) and 'Soona Man Ka Aangan'.

But the singers don't really give us the kind of trembling beauty through the melodies that Shreya had achieved to some extent in her vocals in Bhansali's 'Devdas'.

Realizing her limitations, the album brings in Chithra to do the least lighthearted melody 'Raat Hamari Toh'. The lyrics about the unbearable heaviness of being in love, is conveyed with her habitually thick Tamil accent. The day her Hindi songs stop sounding like Tamil Chithra will become a national sensation.

Sunidhi Chauhan smoulders in the jazz-tinged 'Kaisi Paheli Zindagi'. But this isn't one of her most bravura performances. Veteran Thumri singer Rita Ganguly who does the raunchy wedding song 'Dhinak Dhinak Dha' is able to do precious little with the restricted space provided by the come-let's-get-naughty-tonight lyrics. Partly it's the tune to blame. Debutant Shantanu Moitra is able to bring in the Bengali element in the tracks. But the melody sections needed to be further strengthened. As they stand the songs seem to be on shaky ground.

The lyrics by Swanand Kirkire are self-consciously poetic.

The album comes to us with much expectation, none of it fulfilled. The songs leave you with a remote feeling of dissatisfaction. It's like rowing down what you think is the Hoogly.

It finally turns out to be just a quaint stream from the backwaters.