Journalism of Courage
A year of movies and songs, here are some movies like 'Haider', 'Queen' and 'Highway', whose songs managed to make it to the chart busters in 2014. Also see which songs stood least favourite among all.
The Good Songs
Haider - All songs: It’s hard to choose from this masterstroke of an album. Every song put out by the Vishal Bharadwaj-Gulzar-Faiz combination — be it the heaving Khul kabhi toh, a fresh take on Mehdi Hasan’s famous Gulo mein rang bhare, or the eeriness of a fantastic hook created through shovels hitting the earth in So jao na — had great moments, with melodic and lyrical depth.
Queen - London Thumakda: This one raised the bar among the current breed of Punjabi Bollywood numbers. It dominated dance floors, advertisements, and even the most sombre parties. A tumbi paired with Labh Janjua’s voice and Amit Trivedi’s Midas touch was enough to turn this groovy number into a chartbuster.
Ragini MMS 2 - Baby Doll: It stuck from the moment it hit us. The trademark tumbi, along with contemporary beats, remained the backdrop of the track which was layered with the fresh voice of Kanika Kapoor. The audience bonded over this rockstar of a song on the dance floors and social networking sites with much enthusiasm.
Katiyabaaz - Kanpura: The song was far too powerful to be comfort food. Rahul Ram and Amit Kilam of Indian Ocean, along with lyricist Varun Grover, delivered an absolute cracker with Kanpura.
Highway - Patakha Guddi: Nooran Sisters, with their rustic voices, hit all the right notes with this AR Rahman ditty. There was a sincere charm to this song. For us, it was also the bull’s eye of the year. It was engaging, upbeat, well-orchestrated and had even the most tiniest detail going for it.
The Bad
<Jai Ho - Photocopy: Himesh Reshamiya sang this garba track composed by Wajid. The scattered arrangement, no sense of lyrics and loud percussion, marked this dud of a song that faded from memory even before the film released.
O Teri - Ummbbakumm: Most Mika Singh songs tend to have some hook, if not lyrical sense. But when the singer decided to turn composer, he delivered Ummnnakumm. No amount of percussion and bass-heavy arrangements paired with brass sounds could salvage it.
Youngistaan - Tanki: Tanki hai hum, funky hai hum, monkey hain hum/Aadhe nahi pure paagal hain hum. That’s how this number, attempting techno-pop in terms of composition, opens. This is, by far, the only Sneha Khanwalkar song that has ever been intolerable for us, mostly because of the lyrics and partly because of its all-over-the-place arrangements.
3D CREATURE - Mohabbat Barsa Dena Tu: The year’s worst song belongs to last year’s favourite - Arijit Singh. The composition reminds one of Nadeem-Shravan era, and was the most stale attempt of the year. Most beats seemed to have been ripped off from several international hits.
Tevar - Madmiyaan: Another Mika Singh song, this one needed to come with a statuary warning - “Buy at your own risk”. The Sajid-Wajid composition is off-base and comes with cringe-worthy lyrics. The film will release in 2015, but for the song that was released in 2014, it’s the end of the road.
