Decade later, Salman Khan the singer returns

Mumbai, A decade after he was last heard as a singer, Salman Khan is back behind the mike for his upcoming release “Wanted”. Composer duo Sajid-Wajid say the song titled “Most Wanted Track” is true to the mood and theme of the film.

“The song is indeed a special part of ‘Wanted’. We wanted to make something ‘dhamakedaar’ for Salman bhai and the idea was to have a track that gives audiences a taste of what the film is all about. This is why you don’t just hear Salman bhai mouthing a few dialogues from the film but also singing in the true sense,” Wajid told IANS.

In the late 1990s, each of Bollywood’s three big Khans tried flexing their vocal chords as singers.

Aamir Khan saw huge success coming his way through the song “Aati kya Khandala” in the 1998 movie “Ghulam”, Shah Rukh Khan’s “Apun bola” that he sang for his 2000 movie “Josh” is heard till date and Salman too came up with a ‘tapori’ hit in “Chandi ki daal par” in “Hello Brother” in 1999.

Salman’s new song has quite a few dialogues. It in fact begins with now-famous dialogue, “Ek baar jo maine commitment kar di…..”, and packs in a lot more such one-liners that are bound to keep the masses and lovers of action cinema happy.

“Most Wanted Track” is currently being played along with the teasers of the film. If those 60 seconds are any indication, then this Boney Kapoor production is pretty much a successful film in the offing.

Courtesy the zany sound, two major aspects of the film are highlighted – Salman and ‘desi’ action – setting the tone for lovers of hardcore masala action.

“Salman Khan has always been known for giving his all to a film where his heart is set. ‘Wanted’ pretty much appears to be the film where he is back in a full-on action avtar five years since the release of ‘Garv – Pride And Honor’,” said a trade insider.

Wajid said: “The film is a full-on commercial affair and we went all out to make the album a complete package affair. Other than this theme track, which is of course the highlight of the film, we have incorporated a few dance numbers. We in fact even got Kamaal Khan, who has done so well with Salman bhai earlier, to sing a song (’Ishq Vishq’) in ‘Wanted’.”

In the past, Salman has been credited as a singer for a couple of songs like “Chal mere bhai” or “Main hoon Yuvraaj”. However, he didn’t sing in the conventional sense for either.

While in the former it was Sanjay Dutt who actually crooned the track, with Salman just chipping in as a drunk younger brother, in the latter he primarily spoke a dialogue or two for around a minute as he introduced his character.

” ‘Most Wanted Track’ is a full-fledged song though. Other than the dialogues, Salman bhai is heard singing ‘Teri yaad satati hai’ as a part of it. He has got the feeling of pain spot on. The genre of the song dictated that he sing in a laidback tone and he has done that perfectly fine,” said Wajid.

Produced by Boney Kapoor, “Wanted” is directed by Prabhu Deva and features Ayesha Takia Azmi opposite Salman Khan. The film also stars Mahesh Manjrekar, Asseem Merchant, Mahek Chhal and Prakash Raj along with Anil Kapoor in a special appearance.