The Indian Idol roji roti report

You can see Anu Malik now, thumping his chest and saying: "Anu Malik jo kehta hai, karke dikhata hai". And thus it is that on the quirky soundtrack of Mithun's latest venture to undo all the good karma he has been gathering lately, Anu Malik employs two of his favorites from Indian Idol 3.

On the innane love song I Love You - I Love You, Malik employs Deepali and Emon Chatterjee. Deepali goes first trying to essay an R&B sargam. Both sound decent enough - although sadly not special and certainly not inspiring. Both have good pop voices that could use a lot of polish and, in Emon's case, some breaking in.

It doesn't help that Anu more or less remakes the same song later with Shaan and Mahalaxmi Iyer on the CD - thus providing an unfair point of comparison.

I encourage you to listen, especially if you watched Idol closely last year.

And if you do, stay for that other song - Jeena bhi kya hai jeena - the one done by Bappi Lahiri and Salma Agha for Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki in 1984 (the CD rehashes no less than five retro hits). And this is just my opinion, but Salma sounds ridiculously bad in the song. Luckily Bappi was around to issue some of his trademark low notes.

In fact in light of that controversy racked up by Bappi's arch enemy Abhijit, here is evidence that Bappi can sing in a distinctly un-girly voice.

But fear not, Bappiness abounds. The song at one point requires Bappi to sing "bina". And I can't quite describe how incredible Bappi sounds singing that word. Imagine Rajnikanth cast in Anaconda III yelling: "Waaa! Don't worry, I will chaaarm the vanakonda with a beenah".

Its that kind of beenah.