Digi's Blog

Over these years, if there is one composer team for which my respect has increased manifold, it is the trio of "Shankar – Ehsaan – Loy". They have continuously catered to the tastes of all kinds of people of all age groups. I doubt if there is any genre which they haven't explored, and they have excelled in every one of them – be it romantic, dance tracks or classical. Below is a list of my favorite SEL songs. It is a mix of few expected ones and few unusual ones. And yes, there is not a single song of "Mirzya" on this list. For reasons unknown, that soundtrack never fascinated me beyond a certain point. Not that it was bad, but it doesn't feature in my list. Also, I have restricted this list to hindi songs and thus not included "Katyar Kaljyat Ghusali" which in its entirety was a masterpiece. (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER) 1. KITNI BAATEIN (LAKSHYA) Sung by Hariharan and Sadhana Sargam, this gem took time to grow, but it remains my...

Amidst the sudden deluge of trashy and totally unnecessary remakes and recreations, there were some really good original songs this year. Though not extraordinary, this year was pretty good as far as the music is concerned. While the dependable composers like Pritam and Sachin – Jigar continued churning quality stuff, this year also saw some fresh talent. The best among these were Composer duo Sachet Tandon and Parampara Thakur (Sachet – Parampara) and composer Vishal Mishra who belted out some really excellent songs. Here is my list of my favorite 30 songs of 2019, in no particular order – 1. BEKHAYALI (KABIR SINGH) Music – Sachet Tandon and Parampara Thakur Lyrics – Irshad Kamil Singer – Sachet Tandon This was undoubtedly my favorite song this year with some brilliant singing by Sachet. The Arijit Singh version couldn’t match upto this one, to be honest. 2. LAILA (NOTEBOOK) Music – Vishal Mishra Lyrics – Abhendra Upadhyay, Vishal Mishra Singer – D...

Nikhil Advani is one of those rare directors whose films have always boasted of brilliant music – Kal ho na ho, Salaam-e-ishq, and the recent Patiala House. Even Chandni Chowk to China had the gorgeous “Tere naina”. In short, his movies have always had quality chartbuster stuff. And the people responsible for this have always been the same – Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy. D-Day looks very promising from its promos. However, one doesn’t know what really to expect from the music, as there seems less scope for music here. Yet, let us take a look at the album of D-Day. DUMA DUM gets one more version, this time in the voice of Mika Singh. What is with this song that it is getting so many remakes? No doubt it is a great song, but there is always a tolerance limit. And that has been reached. Earlier this year, even David had a version in the voice of Rekha Bhardwaj. Coming to the song, it is good. Mika does a good job with the vocals. But that’s it. I would prefer the original versi...

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is synonymous with fantastic music. Rang De Basanti and then Delhi 6 were massive blockbusters. This time however Mehra opts for Shankar Ehsaan and Loy instead of A.R Rahman. Let us see what the trio presents to us. Mehra is known for including a short musical/lyrical piece in the soundtracks of his movies. First there was “Ik Onkar” in RDB and then there was “NOOR” in Delhi 6. Here we have “GURBAANI” – a lovely short prayer like piece sung by Daler Mehndi. And boy, Daler paaji rocks. I have always held the opinion that both Daler and his brother Mika sing such songs very well. It is a pity that we get to hear them most often in Punjabi dance numbers. Gurbaani’s short duration of 1.40 minutes is enough to showcase Daler mehndi’s scale range of singing. He is simply brilliant. But the winner is the fab arrangement by the composer trio. What a lovely way to begin a soundtrack! “ZINDA” is easily and undoubtedly THE anthem of the year. The song starts off with h...

There are few movies which have a soundtrack as an aide to the script. While there are few movies which heavily rely on the soundtrack. The most recent example of this is “ROCKSTAR” – a film which needed an extraordinary soundtrack, and that is just what Rahman gave. Touted as India’s first dance film, director Remo D’souza goes a step further to make it in 3D. He also ropes in some of the country’s finest choreographers and dancers. And finally to make sure that there is someone who can act, we have Kay Kay Menon. And then there is Prabhudeva. Now this movie needs a great soundtrack – something which can provide ample opportunity for these dancers to show off their skills on screen, and at the same time sound good to the ears. After his first bolly movie “FALTU”, Remo once again ropes in the extremely talented and “under rated” Sachin – Jigar. After giving some very good music in FALTU, let us see what ABCD has in store for us. “SHAMBHU SUTAYA” is a ganesh aar...

A few days ago I read an article featuring an interview of Bedabrata Pain. How he and his wife were fighting a case against an electric razor company holding them responsible for their son Ishaan’s demise. A former NASA scientist, Bedabrata Pain has earlier produced a film “AMU” starring Konkana sen and directed by his wife Shonali Bose. In Chittagong, the 16 year old Ishaan was supposed to be playing the main role. Now as the film is ready, Bedabrata dedicates this to his son. As he said in this interview, “someone decided to take my surname too seriously” Shankar ehsaan loy are back after a long time. Their last outing was Don 2 which had little of novelty and more of repetition of the tunes used in the first Don.   “BOLO NA” is sung by Shankar Mahadevan. To say that this track is good would be an understatement. It is fantastic. A totally classical song based on the raag Baageshri, this one is a brilliant composition with equally brilliant lyrics penned b...