Chikni Chameli. Shreya doesn't sound like Shreya. She beats Sunidhi in this one, in what I suppose was the latter's area. Katrina dances really well here in the clippings I have seen from the song, but my star for the song is Shreya. As for the lyrics, the first half of the song is still okay, but the second half goes a little low.
But then Amitabh Bhattacharya performs the clean up in O Saiyyan. Roop Kumar Rathod is a god of such light numbers and he does his work to perfection. The tune is nice, the effect of restrictions and tabla and Sitar (I suppose) is really beautiful, perfectly complementing the absence of vocals in intervals.
Gun gun guna re. Sunidhi Chauhan. And Udit Narayan. This one actually is more of a lyrics based song, with some nice positive thoughts thrown in a conversational mood, with an Amitabh Bhattacharya flavor. The music is not something thrilling, but will nonetheless find a place in due time. As for the return of Udit Narayan, he doesn't get a lot to sing, but it was still nice to listen to the voice in a nice track after quite some time.
Sukhwinder Singh's Shah ka Rutba, supported by Anand Raj Anand and Krishna Beura, is a little Arabic/Turkish from the very beginning and the lyrics are in the same flavor, with a lot of Urdu-Persian words, but the base tune of the song is nice and with all the beats thrown in, it can turn quite addictive in its own time. Would like to have a video with this one.
And here comes the Star.
Sonu Nigam, despite his changing attitudes and hairstyles, has proved himself time and again, and this time, as he renders a wonderful tune from Ajay-Atul, he does it again. The song, Abhi mujh mein kahin, which at times has almost no music in the background, and Sonu singing most lightly, goes up slowly to a point where Sonu almost seems to be bursting the heart. And the lines mar jaaun ya jee loon zara are different almost every time, with nothing big, but some simple singing. I can write and write, comparing the singing to Kal ho na ho, or some of his songs in Rahman movies, but better, don't listen to me and instead go listen to the song. I am almost obsessed with the number.
The end of the album comes in a very Ajay-Atul style as Ajay sings a Deva Shree Ganesha that makes a perfect number for Ganpati. And that reminds me of the first look of the movie where Hrithik was shown phoding the matki, I guess. And yeah, the hare rama part is a lovely piece of background music from AA. Anyway, Agneepath, as it seemed from the 30 second previews, is something to cheer about. Abhi Mujh mein kahin, O Saiyyan are top-notch, while chikni chameli is perfect hit material. Gun gun guna re and Shah ka rutba aren't bad and would find their place, though the latter would be more useful in the movie I guess. As for the Ganpati song, it's perfect for its genre.
Eight and change on ten.