A month after the terror strikes in Mumbai, several artists came together here to pay tribute to all those who lost their lives in the attacks. While some felt India should restrict the number of Pakistanis performing in India in the wake of the strikes, others felt the focus should be on restoring peace.

Ghazal singer Pankaj Udhas, who was present at the function here Friday evening, said: “After this attack we should stop our liberal policy of allowing Pakistani artists to perform in our country. Various great artists from Pakistan have performed in India but we have never been invited there.

“Though I believe that music does not believe in divisions on the basis of religion, caste, creed or country, but at same time we should not forget that there cannot be friendship between the two with a one-sided effort.”

Talat Aziz, another noted ghazal exponent, had similar views. “We are always there for friendship but they should accept us. There’s no point in one-way friendship.”

Santoor maestro Shivkumar Sharma however wanted his music to carry forward a message of peace at the concert held in memory of the martyrs and victims of the Nov 26 terror attack. The concert was attended by hundreds of people.

“These types of acts are not to be discussed. Uttering a word about these acts make us insane. Blood stops flowing through our veins. I believe that any person who loves god will also love peace. There is no doubt about it,” Sharma said.

Also present on the occasion were poet-writer Javed Akhtar, actress Shabana Azmi and singers like Sonu Nigam, Jaspinder Narula, Anuradha Paudwal and Anup Jalota.

Shabana Azmi disagreed with the anti-Pakistan stance. “Our fight is not against a particular country but against terrorism. We should be very firm and focussed in our endeavour and take desperate steps to get rid of this menace.”

Javed Akhtar lauded the spirit of Mumbai through moving lines in Hindi – “Mumbai kabhi rukegi nahin, Mumbai kabhi jhukegi nahin, Mumbai kabhi daregi nahin, Mumbai chalti rahegi.” (Mumbai will never stop, Mumbai will never bow down, Mumbai will never be afraid. Mumbai will go on).

On the face value, Heroes is a huge project. After all, it isn’t every day that one finds Salman Khan, Sunny Deol, Mithun Chakravorty and Preity Zinta sharing a common platform. However, since the film is supposed to be episodic in nature, one is unsure about the way the film’s narrative would eventually turn out to be and whether the fans of each of the actors would have their hands full of them. One is also a little apprehensive about the music even though it has Salman’s favorites Sajid-Wajid along with Monty who recently composed for Sunny Deol’s Chamku. While Jalees Sherwani is the man who writes for Sajid-Wajid, Rahul.B.Seth is the lyricist for Monty.

Heroes starts off on a positive note with a serene ‘Mannata’ that is a Sajid-Wajid composition. No wonder, it is picturised on Salman Khan and Preity Zinta who paint the fields green with their mushy romantic act. It is good to hear Sonu Nigam after a hiatus since he has become quite choosy of late but the real surprise is to see the return of Kavita Krishnamurty.

Together the team comes up with a pure Indian number that does remind of ‘Pehli Pehli Baar Baliye’ from Akshay Kumar’s Sangharsh. If you have liked the music of the early 90s when songs belonging to this genre were sung in dozens by Anuradha Paudwal, you would like ‘Mannata’ too. Later, the song also appears in its instrumental version that is titled ‘Lover’s Paradise’ which fuses the Indian theme well with Western instruments. Well made.

Monty comes with an out and out road number in the form of ‘Wat’s Up My Bro’ which has a Western base to it and goes well with the theme of the film. Sung with a punch by Kunal Ganjawala, ‘Wat’s Up My Bro’ is primarily a background theme piece which should play every time the biker duo of Sohail Khan and Vatsal Seth hit the road. Later in the album, the ‘Cruiser’ version of the song comes up too. An energetic piece put it on when on a highway drive. And if you are looking for a break, there is a ‘slow’ version of the same track too which has Shail Hada at the helm. The singer also gets a 30 second ‘Gurbani’ to his credit which appears mid-way into the album.

Hearing ‘Makhana’, one wonders whether Deol brothers have continued to be stuck in a time warp! A quintessential Punjabi dance number set in a bar, ‘Makhana’ belongs to the kind that Sunny and Bobby have been seen dancing to for decades now. Sung by Sukhwinder Singh, Soumya Raoh and Wajid, ‘Makhana’ is an ordinary number that hardly excites and makes you yawn even as Sajid-Wajid hardly try to give it an energetic feel. A kind of number that should be over and done with by now, it later also appears in a ‘Killer’ remix version which only seems to be in a hurry to get over with.

One can’t be expected to be too excited about a number that comes with a title ‘Badmash Launde’. Add to it a 80s style female chorus beginning to this Monty composed song and you hold up your breath before Shail Hada and Parthiv Gohil, the guys who sung ‘Saawariya’ and ‘Yoon Shabnami’ respectively for Saawariya, come along with Rekha Rao.

A mess of a number which tries to fuse folk with contemporary Hindi film music (in a style similar to ‘Maari Teetri’ from Vishal-Shekhar’s De Taali), ‘Badmash Launde’ is the most forgettable track of the entire album. Add to it some poor choreography which doesn’t even qualify to be raunchy and you know that Heroes has started slipping away fast after a decent beginning. Of course, this number too appears in a remix version which has ‘blasted’ as it’s punch word!

Finally comes the ‘theme’ piece of Heroes that has its start on the same lines as ‘Wat’s Up My Bro’ though on a much serene note. Later, the track picks on pace and brings on high energy before merging well with the sound of ‘Mannata’. It is good to see an amalgamation of two of the best tracks from the album since the other two – ‘Makhana’ and ‘Badmash Launde’ – are hardly impressive.

Heroes is an OK album which has ‘Mannata’ and ‘Wat’s Up My Bro’ being the pick of the lot and the ‘theme’ track promising to pace up the affairs in the film’s narrative.