Producer: A M Rathnam
Director: Shankar
Cast: Amrish Puri, Anil Kapoor, Johny Lever, Rani Mukherjee
Music: A R Rahman
Singers: Udit Narayan, Abhijeet, Sanjeevini, Alka Yagnik, Shankar Mahadevan, Hans Raj Hans, Sunidhi Chauhan, Praveen, Shiraz Uppa, Hariharan

Producer-director Shankar's films music has always played a dominant role. From ‘Gentleman’, ‘Kaadhalan’, ‘Indian’ or ‘Jeans’ the films have been musically rich and notable. ‘Nayak-The Real Hero’ is a big budget film starring Anil Kapoor and Rani Mukherji, which fail to stand by its standard musically. The film is a remake of Tamil hit ‘Mudhalvan’. A R Rahman composes the music and there are seven songs in all.

Udit Narayan begins the proceedings with ‘Chalo chalo mitwa’. It’s an ordinary song that sounds melodious. Udit is strictly all right with his rendition and so is the song. There is another version of the song as ‘Chalo chale purva’.

‘Saiyyan saiyyan’ is an ear tuner from the very first instance. Sung by Sunidhi Chauhan and Hans Raj Hans it’s basically a dance track with earthy feel. The Rajasthani beats infuse energy into the track.

‘Chidiya tu hoti to’ strikes but not for good music but inane lyrics by Anand Bakshi. Sung by Abhijeet and Sanjeevani the song sounds funny. Nothing more to it.

‘Tu acha lagta hai’ by Hariharan and Kavita Subramanium also falls in the same category.

Shankar Mahadevan and Alka Yagnik perk up the album with their song ‘Ruki sukhi roti’ an energetic and racy song that gives the feel to dance. This song surely charges up the otherwise mundane album to some level.

The closing track of the album ‘Shakalaka baby’ is the best one to hold on to. A funky, trendy and catchy track done by Vasundhara Das, Shiraz Uppa and Pravin Mani is awesome. The song is picturised on Sushmita Sen in a special appearance, this one is surely going to rock the charts.

Coming from Shankar and A R Rahman the soundtrack of Nayak fail to meet the expectation. With only one or two good tracks the music is a big letdown. Good music for a big budget film is a done thing and this film is going to suffer in this aspect.