Humse Hai Muqabala

AMG Review of Humse Hai Muqabala

Bhasker Gupta
All Music Guide

Humse Hai Muqabala was A.R. Rahman's next big success after Roja, and evidently a different soundtrack than his earlier releases, providing an outline continued later with Bombay. Released first for the Tamil movie Kadhalan, the soundtrack was a major influence on the film's box office success, leading to it being dubbed in Hindi and released throughout the country. Since Rahman had only a brief amount of time to reassemble the Kadhalan soundtrack as Humse Hai Muqabala, the lyrics here are shallow, though arguably this enhances the overall uncanny feel of the album. Relying on a handful of soft ballads, Humse Hai Muqabala proved to be the biggest dance album by Rahman to date, with tracks like the infectious "Urvashi Urvashi," the hip-hop-influenced "Patti Rap," and the graceful "Gopala Gopala." Album highlight "Muqabala Muqabala" proved to be the biggest hit of the year, following various covers released over a short span. Rahman's favorite balladeer, Hariharan, sings on the charming lullaby "Sun Re Sakhi." Though Humse Hai Muqabala does not feature in the front row of A.R. Rahman's biggest successes, it definitely adds a star to the huge repertoire of his carefully conceived albums.