TOP TEN 2012 BOLLYWOOD SONGS

Bollywood Hindi hits of 2012 greet the New Year. - Picture by: Thitimon Toyai

At the sound of crackers and cheer, the Hindi Cinema Blog welcomes 2013 with a celebration of the best 2012 Bollywood songs and albums that will continue to move audiences beyond the holiday season. Here is our humble pick for a TOP TEN (plus one!) songs classified into categories as we raise a toast to a very groovy 2013! Happy New Year!

Check our memorable Romantic, Dance and Atypical Top Ten Hits for 2012:

THE DEWARISTS BRONZE AT CANNES LIONS!

 

The novel music series THE DEWARISTS by Only Much Louder Entertainment and Babblefish has made Indians proud by being awarded the Bronze Lion at the Cannes 59th International Festival of Creativity for Best non-fiction program, series or film where a client has successfully created a reality, documentary or light entertainment show around a product(s) or brand(s).

"Dewarists" has become a new term to designate those people who believe in passion and things worth doing. "What better language to convey that passion than music, so some things are worth doing", may have thought the young team behind such a successful programme showcasing the best of Indian contemporary music and featuring some of its finest performers, from the cinema world an outside of it.

Read more>>

Climb on a ROWDY RATHORE Musical Ride

Taking the risk of sounding snobbish or of disappointing some readers, I have to own up to the fact that Sajid-Wajid have seldom been my favorite soundtrack composers. I acknowledge that they are talented and I do believe they have their moments of brilliance but I have sadly never been 100% captivated by a full album of theirs and have always thought that creating a high quality masala soundtrack is a titanic task. The Rowdy Rathore soundtrack however has the merit of having definitely caught my attention and I therefore could not ignore the opportunity of writing something positive about the composers. What follows is a brief account of each track and our recommendations.

Read more>>

KAHAANI Music Review: Kolkata, You Sexy!

 

In recent days, the only full recent soundtrack running on my computer is Vishal-Shekhar's powerful and quirky Kahaani, with which I have been very pleasantly surprised, feeling that the duo have just delivered one of their best soundtracks to date, expanding their scope of musical expression and delighting us with a titillating new sound.

Bengali, English and Hindi greet the listener with Aami Shotti Bolchi, in which cold-jazz transforms into metal rock and back, hitting a home run with Usha Uthup's and Shekhar Ravjiani's oodles and bundles of attitude. People hailing from Kolkata have a new and ferociously catchy urban song to impress with!  The track has been paired to a promotional video that is currently making my cinematic "mouth" water. Read the full review here

ALI ZAFAR SINGS FOR LPNY

No sooner had we written about the various talents of Purab Kohli and Neil Nitin Mukesh and the interest of other Bollywood personalities entering the world of music, we discovered that the golden voice of talented Ali Zafar (who starred in the acclaimed film Tere Bin Laden and later starred opposite Imran Khan and Katrina Kaif in Mere Brother ki Dulhan reviewed here) had just finished composing and recording the album of his upcoming promising film venture London Paris New York (alias LPNY) in which he and actress Aditi Rao Hydari (Rockstar) personally sing. The rights for the album have been purchased by Sony Music and we are enjoying listening to the very youthful and fresh sound of all seven tracks as we write. 

Read more>>

NEIL NITIN MUKESH Makes Music Happen

Music in Bollywood has been filled with generations of brilliant composers and lyricists working behind the scenes. This new year will see the musical limelight shifting a bit towards celebrities who are making an incursion into the world of song.

Priyanka Chopra is set to be launched as a new pop star (click here to read the scoop), Akshay Kumar and Shah Rukh Khan both attempted to set their hands on the raging hit Kolaveri Di by negotiating with Southern star Rajnikanth to buy the rights for its use in Hindi movies and the newest buzz is that young star Neil Nitin Mukesh is composing and singing several tunes for his very own upcoming film production, taking this starry interest in music to a higher and more comprehensive level.

The year therefore has melodic surprises in stock.

BOLLYWOOD MUSIC HITS: 12 songs to welcome 2012

Image by: Manbiz - Spicytec

Etablishing a list of the greatest songs of an entire year is always a difficult task BUT the Hindi Cinema Blog is one to love a challenge, so fasten your seat belts for the 2011 musical ride! We are recommending 12 tunes to start the millenium's 12th year!

CATCHY DANCE TUNES 2011

And the winners are:

Akon sings for SRK's Ra.One

1. ‘Chammak Challo’ introduced the longest awaited film this year: Shah Rukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor's Ra.One, the song in question starring none other than Akon's voice. You may read our review of the film here.

 

2.‘Jalebi Bai’ (Double Dhamaal - starring Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi) has Shweta Tiwari strutting her item stuff and doing a Ritu Pathak lip-sync throughout the upbeat song.

3.'Character Dheela’ (Ready - starring Salman Khan and Asin) was criticized for its lyrics and Pritam was claimed to be incurring in plagiarism due to the song's extreme resemblance with 'Mohabbat Naam Hai  Kiska' from 2001 film Ajnabee. In any case, the reggaeton-like rhythm invaded radio stations and had more than one of us nodding to the beat.

  4. 'Singham’ (Singham - starring Ajay Devgan) reminds us a bit of the Dabangg title tune but we loved watching Ajay Devgan doing the macho man dance along with all those drums!

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara cast dripping RED tomato juice

5. Last but not least, 'Paint it Red’ (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara - starring Farhan Akhtar, Katrina Kaif and Hrithik Roshan) had crowds dancing to a feel good, chill-out, catchy tune and we thank Shankar Ehsaan Loy for that one. Read our review of the film here.

STARRY-EYED LOVE TUNES 2011

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

6. ** Drum Roll ** The simply sweet and inspirational 'Khwabon Ke Parindey' from film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara placed Alyssa Mendonsa's deliciously unpretentious vocals in everyone's memory. 

7. 'Kaisa Yeh Ishq Hai' (Mere Brother Ki Dulhan starring Imran Khan and Katrina Kaif) was a song that made us say "YESSSS!" for the Sohail Sen we had been waiting for since his highly commendable work in the What's Your Rashee soundtrack. Read our review of Mere Brother Ki Dulhan here.

8. Pritam gifted the audiences a special soundtrack in Mausam, starring Sonam Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor. Our choice from this soundtrack is 'Rabba Main Toh Mar Gaya Oye', with the beautiful voice of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. Read our review of the film here.

Mausam

ALTERNATIVE TUNES IN THE SPOTLIGHT 2011

9. If our dear readers allow us to cheat a teeny weeny bit just this once, we want to recommend the entire Delhi Belly soundtrack, fitting it in as one song... Yes, we know, we know. It counts more songs than should fit in a Top Hits list but we guarantee that the raving is justified. Ram Sampath hit gold with an innovative album to accompany its quirky film, starring Imran Khan, Vir Das and Kunal Roy Kapoor. ‘Ja Chudail’ for example has the greatest heavy metal voice we have ever listened to in Hindi (Suraj Jagan). Other special mentions in the album go to the 'Bedardi Raja' Grind Mix, to the soulful 'Saigal Blues' (in our opinion the best track in the album) and the obvious hit: 'Bhaag DK Bose’. Read our review of the film here.

10. And since you already allowed us to cheat once, we want to repeat the feat for fun's sake and also recommend another full soundtrack in this category: AR Rahman's Rockstar, starring Ranbir Kapoor and Nargis Fakhri. Special mentions go to the gypsy-like 'Haawa Haawa', to 'Jo Bhi Mein', the instrumental 'Dichotomy of Fame', 'Kun Faya Kun' and  'Sadda Haq'. You can read our review of the film here.

Darrling - 7 Khoon Maaf

11. All right, moving on to more alternative musical pastures... The year opened with us celebrating the return of Vishal Bhardwaj and a smashing ‘Daarling’ for 7 Khoon Maaf. Read our soundtrack review here. 

Bhare Naina - Ra.One

12. Our last recommendation is a song that closed this 2011 with a powerful and poignant rendition by Nandini Shrikar,Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani:  'Bhare Naina' (Ra.One).

So ends another year filled with music and entertainment. You will now have a song to think about for each of the clock's 12 chimes as the new year sets in. The Hindi Cinema Blog wishes all our readers a fantastic 2012 filled with joyful entertainment shared with loved ones. Happy Filmi and Musical New Year!

Note: To purchase the songs and soundtracks recommended above, click on the corresponding red bold-type link and you will be redirected.