India's one of the highest paid directors, Shankar, is now back with Boys. He introduces six new faces, 5 boys (Bharath, Siddharth, Nakul, Sai, Vivek, Manigandhan) and a gal (Genelia 'D Souza of Tujhe Meri Kasam [Hindi version of Nuvve Kavali] now rechristened as Harini) for the first time. Shankar's movies always carry positive reports and gargantuan expectations and Boys is no exception. Produced by ace producer AM Ratnam on his Sri Surya Productions banner, Boys boasts of huge sets, rich and grand shot takings, sophisticated computer graphics, socially relevant messages, basically the whole nine yards in Shankar's style.

Shankar and Rahman gave us Gentleman, Premikudu, Bharateeyudu, Jeans, Oke Okkadu in the past and now they team up again for Boys. While all their earlier films had songs of all kinds - melodies, fast beat songs, folkish songs; Boys has mainly high energy, fast beat songs. Keeping in mind, the characters and story of the movie, Rahman delivers a boombastic score for Boys, which is aimed at the youth. Karthik and Vasundhara Das are the stars of this album with their zesty renditions. While all the lyrics are by AM Ratnam and Siva Ganesh, Plassi (Blaaze?) writes good English lyrics and (w)raps them well in the songs.

1. Girl Friend
With its catchy tune and funky orchestration, this song is already a rage among the youth, becoming almost an anthem for them. Karthik, Timmy and Tippu come up with a very apt rendition giving the song the right effect. Lyrics by AM Ratnam and Siva Ganesh center around all those things for which a guy needs a girlfriend and how desperately he wishes for one.

2. Dating
Boy: "Friendship ante RAC. Love confirm cheyyave preyasi"
Girl: "Friendship ante full safety. Love lo ledoy guarantee".
This entire number revolves around the boy trying to convince his girl that its time they 'confirmed' their friendship as love and the girl pays back talking about safety in friendship and questioning the guarantee in love. This rap-cum-classical number is an absolute cool one. Plassi (Blaaze as listed in the Tamil album) not only writes catchy English lyrics for this song but also sings the number well. Vasundhara Das is a perfect fit for this song. Whether it's the way she sings I don't wanna love, I don't wanna love or says No! No! I won't or be it Yeah! Just beat it man, she sounds cool. However this number lacks the pace that is in tact in its Tamil version.

3. Ale Ale
This one's an average track in this album explaining the state of the guy and the girl after they have declared their love to each other. Inspite of Karthik pitching in a lot of energy, this song doesn't have the same impact on us, unlike the other songs in this album. Chitra Sivaraman's voice reminds us of many singers - Mahalaxmi Iyer, Sujatha, Sumangali.

4. Sarigame
This pulsating climax song is full of energy sharing some secrets of success with us. Sung well by Lucky Ali, Clinton, Plassi and Vasundhara Das, it is supposed to be one of the best picturized songs of the movie. Lucky Ali and Vasundhara Das make their presence very much felt in this song that boasts of pumping beats and a riveting rhythm.

5. Boom Boom
As much as you would like to enjoy this catchy number, its insipid and funny lyrics might stand in the way, especially if you are the kind of person who would want the lyrics to be atleast bearable, if not anything more (Listen to the lyrics in the charanams and I am sure you will agree with me.) While Udit Narayan is his usual self, Sadhana Sargam's high pitch rendition doesn't sound pleasant. Actually the same song sounds a lot better in Tamil [sung by Adnan Sami and Sadhana Sargam]. Nevertheless, you might still end up humming this song incessantly.

6. Maro Maro
This one's another number that is full of beats with a streak of rebellious attitude asking us to 'break the rules'. Well, aren't rules really meant to be broken? Yes! And that's what this song preaches. Karthik, Kunal, George, Anupama and Sunitha sing this one.

Overall, the entire album is mainly aimed at the youth. With high-energy beats and catchy raps, this soundtrack has already caught the fancy of Rahman fans and youth in particular. Irrespective of the movie's fate, this album is bound to top the music charts given its highly infectious numbers like Girlfriend, Dating, Sarigame. Also, Shankar's style of picturizing the songs in an out of the world manner will definitely complement the soundtrack making the songs all the more hummable and likeable. Since the songs are centered on boys [youth] and their fantasies and this being a dubbed album, lyrics are nothing to rave about in this album. Added to that, the lyrics of Boom Boom are in poor taste making you squirm as you listen to the song. Still, Rahman has a winner here..

Sreya's Picks: Dating, Sarigame, Girlfriend

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