Replay: 'Race' And Pritam's Glossy, Borrowed, Unshakeable 2008 Party Album

Race arrived straight after Pritam's best year yet, a 2007 that included Life in a... Metro, Bhool Bhulaiyaa and Jab We Met. Tips released the soundtrack on 25 January 2008, two months before Abbas-Mustan's thriller opened on the Holi weekend, with Sameer writing every lyric and DJ Suketu producing a second disc of remixes. It moved about 1.7 million units, the fifth-best-selling album of the year. The film starred Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif and Anil Kapoor in a story of brothers, horses and insurance money. The music had to sound expensive.

The album ran to 17 tracks and nearly 69 minutes: seven originals, nine remixes and a short "Race Theme" sung by Abrar ul Haq. Pritam was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director. At the IIFA Awards the album was in the running for music director, lyricist for Sameer on "Pehli Nazar Mein", and both playback categories, Aslam for that song and Thakur for "Zara Zara Touch Me".

'Pehli Nazar Mein'

At 5:10, "Pehli Nazar Mein" is the longest original on the album. Atif Aslam sings the record's one true ballad, with Clinton Cerejo and Pritam credited alongside, over a spare, soft-rock arrangement. That spring it played out of phone shops and college canteens. It also came in club and lounge mixes, very much a 2008 instinct. Listeners online still call it peak late-2000s romance, often in the same breath as noting that the hook was alleged to have come from a Korean drama song. Aslam was at the height of his Bollywood run, and he stretches the vowels of the title line a long way. Sameer's lyric is first glances and sleepless nights. On Spotify the song is past 270 million plays.

'Khwab Dekhe (Sexy Lady)'

This one wasn't on the original album. Monali Thakur and Neeraj Shridhar recorded it after release to replace "Mujh Pe Toh Jadoo" in the film, and Tips reissued the soundtrack with it. The song it replaced, sung by Sunidhi Chauhan with Apache Indian and Taz, stayed on the album, remix and all. The late swap became the album's second-biggest song, and a 2008 sangeet staple once the uncles had gone home. Shridhar half-speaks his lines and Thakur sings hers sweet. The English tag in the title dates it to the year.

'Zara Zara Touch Me'

Monali Thakur, Earl Edgar and Pritam, over a guitar riff and a hard beat. Thakur keeps it playful, not sultry. It too ran into a plagiarism claim, from a Taiwanese label over a Wang Leehom song, and Sony BMG Taiwan sent Tips a legal letter seeking damages. It opens the album, and two more mixes of it, one billed as Asian RnB, sit in the remix half.

The late swap became the album's second-biggest song, and a 2008 sangeet staple once the uncles had gone home.

'Race Saanson Ki'

Sunidhi Chauhan and Neeraj Shridhar on the title song, which opens on a spy-film electric guitar before the "Allah Duhai Hai" hook drops in and gives it a groove. That hook is how most people remember it: ask anyone to hum the title song and that is what you get. Chauhan takes most of it, and Shridhar keeps to the edges. A second version, "Race Is on My Mind", puts the same pair on a different arrangement. Like most of the album, it was made to sell the film's gloss.

'Dekho Nashe Mein'

Chauhan again, this time with KK and Shaan, on a quick dance-floor track. KK and Shaan trade lines, and three of the decade's busiest voices end up on one song. It still turns up on road-trip playlists. The remix disc has two more versions of it, an Asian RnB mix by Silk Route and a Latin Fiesta mix.

(Source: official soundtrack credits, Tips release, Spotify)

Share this story

Add Tracklist India as a preferred source on Google