Sadly, downhill! After a great, tuneful opening with the Kelash girls, titled Pareek, this far down the road, September 7, the songs, mostly sound half-cooked, and lacking the sort of melodic tingle that used to be present uptill now!

I was really impressed by Allama Iqbal’s Shikwa Jawab-e-Shikwa by Abu Mohammad, Fareed Ayaz and Natasha Baig. That was one brilliant stuff early on, as the music surged, and episodes started coming thick and hard. More on Shikwa number later in the month. For the moment, I am fretting for the quick-fix sound of Coke Studios, this season. It’s giving me the feeling that the songs are not being rounded out, and despite the fantastic combinations of the regular team, quite a few songs sound taken from the western numbers, and then mixed to be presented in the coming episodes.

Asim Azhar and Momina Mustehsin sing Mahi Aaja, which definitely has the feel of the hastily-mixed western song. Despite good voices, the song lacks wholesomeness. Similarly, the Shuja Haider-Aima Baig ditty, Aatish is again crackling with the western bias, with, again, the same feel of not being rounded out at the edges.

But, Mustehsin and Bagga have sung a very nice film-like duet, Roey roey that has a powerful feel of the blue mood. Bagga, having tried his hand at the films, is getting around to versatile sound that always made brilliant musicians. From Bin Roey to his number in Shaan’s film, to now, Bagga has matured into a versatile musician, and any time soon, I think he will come up with a whole geetmala in films!