Filmfare Flashback 2016: Music roundup of the chartbuster year

The first half of the 2016 was a mixed bag musically. The standout song of the first half was the promo song of Fan, Jabra, composed by Vishal-Shekhar. Clinton Cerejo, who has been a programmer and arranger, came into his own with his private album Jugni and the score of Te3N. Amit Trivedi’s Udta Punjab, with its modern take on Punjabi folk sound, was the standout album of the first half. The safe and sound method of packing the OST with multiple composers continued, what with even Dharma Productions jumping into the fray with as many as four composers for Kapoor & Sons. The second half saw the emergence of Amaal Mallik and Ankit Tiwari as solo composers. Veterans like Shankar-Eshsaan-Loy emerged as frontrunners with their superb OST of Mirzya. Vishal-Shekhar and Pritam too made their presence felt with Sultan and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil respectively. AR Rahman had an off year with Mohenjo Daro... and kept his fans hoping for more...

 

 

Sultan

Release date: July 6

Music: Vishal-Shekhar

Lyrics: Irshad Kamil

The most talked about song was Baby ko bass pasand hai sung by Vishal Dadlani, Shalmali Kholgade, Ishita and Badshah. Jag ghoomeya (male version) sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan also became popular. Papon’s qawwali Bulleya was another heartfelt number. The title song rendered by Sukhwinder Singh and Shadab Faridi gave the feel of a live dangal in Punjab.

Dishoom

Release date: July 29, 2016

Music: Pritam

Lyrics: Kumaar, Mayur Puri and Ashish Pandit

Raftaar and Shahid Mallya provided great verve to the title song, Toh dishoom. Pritam took the Afghan jalebi route for Jaaneman aah, while Sau tarah ke, sung  by Amit Mishra and Jonita

Gandhi made noise as well.  

 

 

Fever

Release date: August 5

Music: Ranjit Barot,Tony Kakkar, Onésia Rithner, Shamir Tandon,Jacelyn Perry,Faizaan-Agnel,Rahul Jain,Rahul Bhatt and Tanishk Bagchi

The film had some 15 tracks by talented composers catering to different genres. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a musical but a thriller. Arijit Singh’s Bas ek baar and Shalmali Kholgade’s Mujhme kabhi stood out. 

Mohenjo Daro  

Release date: August 12

Music: AR Rahman

Lyrics: Javed Akhtar

The title song Mohenjo mohenjo sung by Arjit Singh, AR Rahman, Bela Shende and Sanah Moidutty had excellent chorus work. Tu hai, a romantic duet by Rahman and Sanah Moidutty, gripped you from the word go. The vocal virtuosity of Arjun Chandy and his NAFS vocal group was on display in Whispers of the mind and Whispers of the heart. The OST remained an experimental album by Rahman.

Rustom

Release date: August 12

Music: Arko Pravo Mukherjee, Jeet Gannguli, Ankit Tiwari, 

Raghav Sachar

Lyrics: Manoj Muntashir

Arko’s Tere sang yara, sung by Atif Aslam, carried the cadence of a man madly in love. Rustom vahi, by Raghav Sachar felt like the theme song of Shaan. Ankit Tiwari’s sombre Jab tum hote ho made great use of Shreya Ghoshal’s melodious voice. Jeet Gannguli brought out the period feel with his compositions, Dekha hazaron dafaa sung by Arijit Singh and Palak Muchhal and Dhal jaoon main sung by Jubin Nautiyal and Akansha Sharma. 

Happy Bhag Jayegi

Release date: August 19

Music: Sohail Sen

Lyrics: Mudassar Aziz

Mika sang Gabru with panache and the voices of Tarranum Malik, Neeti Mohan and Danish Sabri added to the song.  The qawaali Aashiq tera, sung by Altamash Faridiwas, is the standout track of the album. Yaaram, sung by Javed Ali had Indian percussion, flute and guitar work creating melody.  

A Flying Jatt

Release date: August 25

Music: Sachin-Jigar

Lyrics: Vayu & Raftaar, Priya Saraiya, Mayur Puri

The title track, sung by Mansheel Gurjal, Raftaar and Tanishkaa, was a bhangra hip hop number. The popular Beat pe booty, sung by Sachin-Jigar, Vayu and Kanika Kapoor had the same feel as well. Toota jo kabhi tara sung by Atif Aslam and Sumedha Karmahe, offered a contrast to the otherwise bhangra infused songs. Atif Aslam was good in the ‘Sufiesque’ Khair mangda, easily the best song of the OST.

 

 

Akira

Release date: September 2

Music: Vishal-Shekhar

Lyrics: Kumaar

While Sonakshi Sinha’s version of Rajj rajj ke proved her to be a pleasant enough singer, it was teenage sensation Nahid Afrin who killed it in her two versions. Baadal sung by Sunidhi Chauhan was easily one of her best songs recently. Kehkashan tu meri was a reworking of Vishal- Shekhar’s own Haravali pakhare from the Marathi film Balak Palak. Shekhar Ravjiani had sung the original and did full justice to this version too.

Baar Baar Dekho

Release date: September 9

Music: Amaal Mallik, Arko, Badshah, Jasleen Royal and

Bilal Saeed

Lyrics: Prateek Kuhad, Kumaar, Arko, Aditya Sharma, Amrik Singh

Kho gaye hum kahan, sung by Jasleen Royal and Prateek Kuhad and composed by Jasleen was a serene piece. Jasleen also composed the bhangra number Nachde ne saare, sung by Harshdeep Kaur, Siddharth Mahadevan 

and Jasleen. Sau asmaan, sung by Armaan Malik and Neeti Mohan and composed by Amaal Mallik, was Sooraj dooba redux. Dariya, written, composed and sung by Arko was a soulful number.  Pak singer-composer Bilal Saeed reworked his own Khair mangdi to make it sound ‘Bollywoodish’. The reworking by Badshah of Amar Arshi’s original Kaala chashma was the song of the album.  

Pink

Release date: September 16

Music:: Shantanu Moitra, Faiza Mujahid, Anupam Roy

Lyrics: Faiza Mujahid, Tanveer Ghazi, Anupam Roy

Jeenay de mujhe sung, written and composed by Pakistani composer Faiza Mujahid was wanting to live life on their terms. Qurat-Ul -Ain Balouch, another talented voice from Pak, sang the pathos-filled Kaari kaari with the right amount of angst. Tujhse hi hai roshni sung, written and composed by Anupam Roy, was a refreshing take by a male musician in a film about women empowerment. The title song, sung by Jonita Gandhi, had a buoyant, stadium sound.  

MS Dhoni : The Untold Story

Release date: September 30

Music: Amaal Mallik

Lyrics: Manoj Muntashir

The film marked Amaal Mallik’s debut as a solo composer. Besabriyaan, sung by Armaan Malik, touched upon the desire to break free from the yoke of everyday life. Kaun tujhe sung by Palak Muchhal, had minimal orchestration and felt like an ’80s Ilayaraja number. Parwah nahi sung by Siddharth Basrur captured the rebellious nature of Dhoni. Padhoge likhoge sung by Ananya Nanda and Adithyan A Prithviraj brought home the point that sports are important in a non-preachy way.

 

 

Mirzya

Release date: October 7

Music: Shankar Ehsaan Loy

Lyrics: Gulzar

The title track sung by Daler Mehndi, Saieen Zahoor, Akhtar Channal and the Nooran sisters offered a mix of modern and traditional sounds. Aave re 

hichki sung by Shankar Mahadevan and Mame Khan 

was pure folk melody. Mohan Kannan and Nooran Sisters combined to provide excellent vocals to the minimalist folk arrangement in Ek nadi thi. Doli re doli had Shankar Mahadevan moving from classical to jazz elements in his vocals. Kaushiki Chakraborty’s harkats in Kaaga coupled with the song’s symphony like orchestration took it to another level. 

Shivaay

Release date: October 28

Music: Mithoon

Lyrics: Sayeed Quadri and Sandeep Shrivastava

Darkhaast, sung by Arijit Singh and Sunidhi Chauhan, was the standout song of the album, what with its techno beats combining with soft melody to make it a winner. Tere naal ishqa, sung by Kailash Kher in his high-pitched voice too stood out among this four song album.

Ae Dil Hai Mushkil

Release date: October 28

Music: Pritam

Lyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya

Bulleya, with electric guitar riffs and Amit Mishra and Shilpa Rao on the vocals became an instant favourite. Arijit Singh’s Channa mereya had a folk-inspired tune while The breakup song by Arijit, Jonita Gandhi, Badshah, Nakash Aziz had a funky tune and goofy lyrics. Cutiepie, sung by Pradeep Singh Sran and Nakash Aziz became a crowd favourtie too.

 

 

Rock On!! 2

Release date: November 11

Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy

Lyrics: Javed Akhtar

Shraddha Kapoor was excellent in Udja re, taking to its rock format like fish to water. Hoi Kiw chalo chalo was a folk melody reworked as a rock anthem and carried a North Eastern flavour and had Khasi lyrics by Kit Shangpliang, besides the Hindi ones by Javed. Usha Uthup sang it in conjunction with Kit Shangpliang and Pynsuklin Syiemiong. Full marks to S-E-L for pushing the envelope and succeeding.

Tum Bin II

Release date: November 18

Music: Ankit Tiwari and 

Nikhil-Vinay

Lyrics: Manoj Muntashir

Teri fariyaad composed by Nikhil-Vinay and written by Faaiz Anwar was a carry on from the original film. Rekha Bhardwaj’s vocals were cleverly added to the song originally sung by Jagjit Singh. The juxtaposition of their voices worked wonders. Dekh lena, sung by Arijit and Tulsi Kumar, was an archetypical romantic song. The title song, sung by Ankit was more melodic than the original. 

Force 2

Release date: November 18

Music: Gourov Roshin

Lyrics: Kumaar, Rashmi Virag

Rang laal about the sacrifices of our men in uniform was sung by Aditi Singh Sharma and Dev Negi and included dialogue by John Abraham. Neha Kakkar sounded much like Alisha Chinai in the remix version of Kate nahi katate from Mr India (1987) called O janiya. Guest composer Amaal Mallik helmed the soft romantic number Ishaara and brother Armaan Malik made sure to hit the right notes. 

Dear Zindagi

Release date: November 25

Music: Amit Trivedi

Lyrics: Kausar Munir

Sunidhi Chauhan sang Just go to hell dil with just the right rhythm. The title song was belted out by Jasleen Royal in her characteristic girl-woman voice. Arijit Singh has a knack of making every song his own and he did it with Tu hi hai. Breakup songs are the flavour of the season and Let’s break up, sung by Vishal Dadlani, fell in the same category. Amit also remixed Ilaiyaraaja’s Ae zindagi gale laga le from Sadma (1983) and Arijit Singh did a brilliant job of crooning it. 

 

 

Befikre

Release date: December 9

Music: Vishal-Shekhar

Lyrics: Jaideep Sahni

Labon ka karobar sung by Papoon makes a mission statement about the film, which is about right here, right now love. Nashe si chadh gayi sung by Arijit Singh talks about love’s intoxication, while Ude dil befikre by Benny Dayal was about crazy love. You and me by Nikhil D’Souza and Rachel Varghese was a romantic dance number. A fresh, frothy album by Vishal-Shekhar that kept to the film’s theme.