3 Idiots could also be the term of reference in speaking about the triumvirate: Shantanu Moitra (composer), Swanand Kirkire (lyricist-vocalist), and Vidhu Vinod Chopra (producer-director) who have combined their talents to churn out as little as one Hindi film music album every year, or even less, but nevertheless something that precariously stands out against the incoming sonic wave of mix-and-match cacophony music that Bollywood keeps regurgitating week after week.

The soundtrack of 3 Idiots then fittingly opens with a rooster’s pre dawn cock-a-doodle croon, portentous of the ribaldry that is to follow in the coming ditties. Aal Izz Well has Sonu Nigam performing the nursery rhyme philosophy for adults. ‘Bakra kya jaane uss ki jaan ka kya hoga, seekh ghusegi ya saala keema hoga,’ is pretty choppy on the rhythm board. There’s stuff about the egg and chicken as well, and the phrase is likely to be a catch word. The song is best seen, not heard.

Zoobi Doobi took me back to O. P. Nayyar's rambunctious music – except that the clap-trap trick is missing in this track. It’s got a retroland heyday fever with its head tossed up in the air and legs twisting to mediocre outpourings of love. Shantanu’s jazz leaning shows up in the score, in the way he arranges music in a cascade; swerving between a high and low music octave with the flourish of a comedian conducting a ditty.

Shaan’s Behti Hawa Sa starts like the calm surface of a brook, but underneath, it conceals a dormant volcano of sounds as he scales and dips to manifest the mood of the song. Nothing spectacular, though.

Actor Sharman Joshi lends his voice to Give Me Some Sunshine, interspersing the song with dialogues in a bid to give it a sing-song narrative of a story encompassing the angst of youth academia. Songs about schooling and exams sound trite when full-bodied adults yodel about wanting to grow up again. So infantile!

Sonu returns to halt you with Jaane Nahi Denge – a track which is operatic in ambition, but wedges somewhere between here and nowhere. Seriously, what is Sonu trying to achieve with his hurried pitch?

Zoobi Doobi has a clumsy remix, and All Izz Well- did it need one? Aamir Khan has done it again, after last year’s god-awful Ghajini soundtrack, here’s this year’s turkey soundtrack for his ‘most awaited’ film of the year. 3 Idiots is meant for those geeks/nerds/dorks who will hail this soundtrack as the Chetan Bhagat of music. Shantanu Moitra, you surely don’t want to sail in his boat.

Rating: 1 on 5

Composer: Shantanu Moitra

Lyricist: Swanand Kirkire

Label: T-Series

Price: Rs 160