Garam Masala

Album Review

Following in the footsteps of Anu Malik, Pritam Chakraborty is the new copycat on the block, snoring his way through all media criticism and disparagement. Garam Masala is his third hit after Dhoom and Chocolate, and it should be mentioned that he continued to make commercially successful music in Bollywood despite the criticism he rightfully faced. Moreover, especially in an industry rampant with plagiarism of all forms, those in the cadre of Anu Malik and Pritam are ridiculed the most. While instances of O.P. Nayyar, R.D. Burman, and Laxmikant Pyarelal copying tunes from outside sources without crediting the original artists are viewed as mere inspiration, Anu and Pritam are deemed fakes and receive widespread condemnation. Maybe their shameless stance toward this important moral issue and an unquestioning demeanor regarding their creative mediocrity are the factors that relegate them to the status of copycats in the pages of history. Above all, Pritam chooses his sources with undeniable peculiarity. Most of the originals are unknown to this part of the world — "Dil Samundar" is lifted from the lesser-known Turkish singer Tarkan's "Kuzu Kuzu" (he already picked another song by Tarkan for Dhoom). "Chori Chori," the hip-hop-styled bhangra track sung in two versions by Hema Serdesai, Sukhwinder Singh, and Labh Janjua of Punjabi MC fame, is lifted from U.K.-based bhangra artist Doctor Zeus, and the same goes for "Adaa" and "Falak Dekhoon," picked from the songs of Amr Diab. Aside from the copying issue, Garam Masala has an incontestable catchy feel that augments the comic genre of the film and provides a wholesome package of well-conceived songs that sounds commendable — before the concerns around plagiarism surface.