Mumbai, Sep 8

Abbas Tyrewala was in Chennai Sunday and Monday, trying to get the last bit of his much-delayed music in "Jhootha Hi Sahi" in place. The film is just weeks away from its release date of Oct 15 and the master CD is still not in the director's hands.

The formal music release by Saregama has been postponed until the music is ready. But before that a formal announcement of the music is expected to be made on a music reality show to be recorded Tuesday.

The 'master' must be ready latest by Monday evening, so that Abbas and composer A.R. Rahman could rush back from Chennai in time to record the show Tuesday. At the time of writing, the music was still not completed.

Trying to sound brave and not pressing the panic button, Tyrewala Sunday said from Chennai: "I've been shuttling between Chennai and Mumbai. Staying awake since Rahman works at nights, I've forgotten what jetlag is. I know it's cutting it close. We are almost done....finally! We just need to add a string section in the soundtrack. I am hopeful tomorrow it will be done and we'll make it for the show."

Abbas jumps to the much-beleaguered Rahman's defence. "When you want the pinnacle of excellence in the quality of songs in your film that only Rahman can achieve, then you're prepared to be patient. Yes, I have had to wait. But it been worth it. Rahman has composed seven songs and two re-mixes. That's a total of nine tracks."

As for the delay, Abbas defends: "What can Rahman do if suddenly three films are all up for release at the same time, my 'Jhootha Hi Sahi', Danny Boyle's '127 Hours' and Shankar's 'Robot' are all being readied for release at the same time. Have a heart."