This is the week's best music from across the nation. Music from every state written in every language, composed as a part of Movies and by Indie artists is listened to and after analyzing more than 350 tracks released in the week ending 27th March 2022, I have rated and reviewed the 15 absolute best tracks in the country. This is truly India's ONLY multilingual music review and music curation page. Week after week, without any breaks you will get the review and links to the best work from musicians all over the country.
1. Kabhi mai Kabhi tum
I listened to this song and I was blown away, and very rarely do I straightaway allocate the number 1 position for the week, but this time it was inevitable. As I did my research I figured that this was a Pakistani production with all performers hailing from our neighbor country. Should that stop me from publishing it in this week's list? As a policy, I have been reviewing the best songs by Indians inside India or living abroad or even musicians outside but of Indian descent. Since this song was a part of one of Spotify India’s playlists I am going to go ahead and review this magical number, as music breaks all boundaries, clichéd but true. I tried to dig deeper but couldn't make much headway into the full song credits. The plucked instrument used in the beginning is delightful and soothing just like Asim Azhar’s voice. The string section that joins in the background along with the title line is what raises the quality. Asim along with Hassan Ali write the song with Qasim Azhar producing it. The way the song transforms into Sufi-styled Tabla and Harmonium is magic in the interlude. The stanza is just more exhibition of Asim’s vocal strength with bass guitars and a solo flute in the background. I hear a faint resemblance to Pritam’s splendid “Shayad� sung by Arijit Singh.
2. Bindiya Le gayi, Tere Dar se & Le chali Taqdeer
This one weekly list will never be enough to praise this superb work by Rahul Deshpande, the grandson of Vasantrao Deshpande ji. The movie on the eminent Classical vocalist is releasing this week and his own grandson has played the role on screen, and composed and sung in the album. I'll be making a special post on all 22 songs, the Raag influences and the impeccable singing and arrangements in every piece. For now here are the 3 favourite numbers Bindiya Le Gayi sung by Priyanka Barve, Tere Dar se sung by Himani Kapoor, Rahul himself and Le Chali Taqdeer sung by Rahul.
Bindiya Le Gayi is set in Raag Pilu (Kaapi in Carnatic) and here Priyanka shines in this original delivered by Vasantaro ji. The Esraj is a constant companion played by Arshad Khan and Prashant Sonagra plays the Tabla to set the perfect rhythm. Priyanka is so effective with her aalap, her creative vibrato and her improvisations. Listen to the strings, Sitar, bass guitars and flute all accompanying in style.
The second song I love is Tere Dar se sung by Himani Kapoor set in Raag Yaman. The Sitar is like the second hero in the track and it nicely reminds me of AR Rahman’s “Ae hairathe�. The Tabla and Harmonium adds that classical color to the song. The second stanza has Rahul joining in on the vocals with some elaborate aalap.
Le Chali Taqdeer is the final recommendation from the album and it is set in Raag Khamaj. Rahul has composed and sung with assistance from Bhushan Mate and Sarang Kulkarni. Mayuresh Wagh has penned the lyrics while Sourav Roy has arranged and programmed for the track. The strings section we hear in all the songs of the album is thanks to Macedonia Strings, and here too we have a splendid interlude aided by Varad Kathapurkar on the flute. The guitar plays all along romanticizing the number with Sanjoy Das as the protagonist. Vijay Dalal has recorded and mixed with assistance on recording from Chinmay Mestry, Tushar Pandit, Ishaan Devasthali and Adwait Walujkar
3. Fakeeri
Its Himani Kapoor again, what a week she is having! This is in an indie project singing for Rimi Dhar's score. The vocal texture is very similar to that of a Kavita Seth, something we don’t hear often. It is paradise when she sings the title line and hearing the Tabla you cant stop tapping your feet. I listen to these lines and maybe there is an influence of Raag Khamaj, because there is a connection to that song “Mitwa� by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. The interlude is a solo on the Harmonium by Kumar Satyam and some sorcery on the Tabla by Aqid Husain Khan Niyazi. It is that man Sanjoy Das again on the electric guitars leading us into the Antara. The stanza starts off in a Indian classical fashion, but the second half is a very unexpected Western classical sort of a tone which is why the score is great. Saaveri Verma writes the words, and Sanjoy sizzles all along in the background. The track is mixed and mastered by Dipesh Sharma Batalvi. Vanikki Tyagi is the creative and executive producer and this one fabulous project with women artists all the through. It is so enriching to see a woman composer helm the role and score so well, and I cant wait for Rimi's forthcoming projects.
4. Narazgi
I do know that the music coming out of a Rajat Nagpal score or production has to be good, and thank God it is. Just listen to his previous song called “Dil Ka Gehna� and you will know what I mean. Neha Kakkar impresses me with this melody unlike the plethora of run-of-the-mill Punjabi numbers she releases. The most satisfying fact for me now is that number 3 and 4 are two amazing numbers, both are composed by women. Girl Power! Sonal Pradhan has written and composed the song set in Raag Yaman, and once again kudos to Rajat for promoting great young talent. You would think this is an English soft pop number when it starts with the vocals and Shomu Seal’s guitars, but wait for the transformation. I just love the lines written filled with love, the female lead asking these questions to her lover. The wonderful percussions are played by Dipesh Varma while the traditional Dholak and Tabla are played by Babbu Saral. The Tabla with the bass guitars is a fine combination, and Neha's savvy singing is just the perfect choice for delivering this. Rajat has arranged, mixed and programmed the track. Shomu’s acoustic guitar intervention in the antara is just what piques our interest further. The track is recorded by Rahul Sharma with assistance from Samir Dharap.
5. Nira Ravil
A Malayalam number is bound to always make it to the top 6 every week on my listing and here it is from KR Rahul's composition for this week. The song immediately resonates of Raag Reethigowla and it is refreshing to hear Akbar Khans voice, from a novelty standpoint and a few more solid reasons as well. The solo flute by Biju Kottayam and Kottayam Strings make a grand start to the number. It is the bass guitar by Sumesh Parameshwar and blissful voice of Akbar that drive us forward despite there being a zillion songs based on this Raag. The opening lines somehow remind of the stanza of Ilaiyaraja’s “Guruvayurappa�. The interlude is loaded with a few more live instruments as OK Gopi plays the Nadaswaram, and Balakrishna Kammath plays the Mridangam. The other traditional percussions like Thavil, Ghatam and Kanjira are played by Thrippunithura Sreekumar. After all this that has transpired in the song, the legendary KS Chitra then starts singing and how on earth does she still sound this good, does age never affect a few? Sumesh is stunning on acoustic and bass guitars and all the functions and funk will make you fall in love with the music. The Kottayam Strings comprising of Violinists Mathews P John, Subinkumar A S, Sasikumar A,Danny John,Shyjo Mathew, Vinod Jacob and Violas played by Subinkumar A S, Danny John, Shyjo Mathew completely make your heart get attached to their strings and you just are puppet dancing to their tunes. Renjith C Rajan has mixed and mastered the track. The lyrics are by Akhila Sayooj S
6. Naino Waleya
Nothing can stop him from making good music, and he is now producing them like a conveyor belt , except that every end product is based on a different Raag and has even better arrangements than the previous. This is the 4 th single from Anirudh Varma’s collective album and I most certainly assumed it was based on Raag Yaman. Later when I had a word with Anirudh he told me that it was based on Raag Maru Bihag but it is close to Yaman. He has directed this musically, with arrangements and playing the Keyboards, while he ropes in the supremely talented Pavithra Chari and Hindustani vocalist Kshitij Mathur as lead vocalists. It is a galaxy of stars here as Darshan Doshi plays the drums, Kamran Zafar plays the bass, and Shrikant Biswakarma is on electric guitars. You can do nothing else but surrender to the glory of the music that is just playing in front of you. Anirudh also excels in arranging the harmonies and he has this massive army of vocalists on the choir viz. Anushree Mahindra, Arjun Pandey, Aaromal Rajendrababu, Shraddha Shree, Santur Kundu, Bhakti Kalidhar, Anmol Kumar, Aathira Gopi, Vaibhav Sakshi, Kavya Mohan, Vidisha Sharma, Ram Visakh, Sree Rag, Shruti Parthasarthy, Aronjoy Das, Gatha Akashkamini, Sanchayan Joarder, Hari Krishnan, Neethu Krishna, Kavya Mohan, Ashanis Tuteja & Mayank Mittal.
The Sarangi solo in the interlude is by Ahsan Ali and listen to how well it mixes with the bass guitars and all the drums and Tabla by Saptak Sharma. Kavya Singh another usual suspect in Anirudh’s collective has done all the additional composition. The lyrics are penned by Arjun Pandey and the recording, mixing and mastering is by ace engineer Anindo Bose at Plug ‘n’ Play Studios. The last bits where the lead vocalists sing in unison is unadulterated goodness!
7. Maira
Muheet Bharti is a renowned guitarist and composer and he works closely with Salim-Silaiman on their compositions and productions and it is so heartening to see budding instrumentalists go on to things like composition especially if they are this good. His earlier single “Dil Kya Kahe� was at number 7 in the country for that week back in November 2021, and it seems that 7 is his lucky number. Muheet goes all out for this one, singing, composing, writing and producing it and it is presented by Merchant Records. Listen to him sing and you feel like you are in the presence of a version of Arijit Singh himself, singing with all that freedom and improvised vibrato. The background vocals are teasing you even as Muheet just finished delivering those lines about the estranged lover “Maira�. The song lacks a meaty middle part, but the lines that play offer so much in style and substance that all those flaws are glossed over. The Keys, and strings in the deeper layers are too emphatic and enchanting to ignore. Aftab Khan mixes and masters the track with Vatsal Chevli as the mix assistant.
8. Akasham Pole
He is one of the best young talents in the country right now, and wait I could be talking about either of them and it still would fit. Well the composer Sushin Shyam and male lead vocalist Kapil Kapilan are both hot cakes in their own fields and when they come together, it is nothing short of wizardry. This is song from the well-appreciated movie “Bheeshma Pravam� is one of two I loved, the other being “Be Notorious�. The clarinet is just captivating much like how Santhosh Narayanan uses a lot of the instruments from the Brass section, and Hamsika Iyer is fabulous in her low scaled vocals and with Sandeep Mohan’s guitars in the background. Nadhan plays the clarinet and Naveen Napier is on the bass guitars. There is a texture of some of Sushin’s work from ‘Kumbalangi Nights’. Kapil Kapilan is at his usual best and he gets every emotive element of the song spot on. Nadhan’s clarinet solo gets more intriguing in the interlude, and there is a Choir team sounding angelic in the background along with Rithu Vysakh’s one -man quartet strings. The choir comprises of Amal Antony, Agustin Geo C Anto Alex Peter Mejosh Joshy Jasil MJ Aarya Janardhanan , Preethu Mary George, Anjali Sanoop, Nithya Aljo . A cat and mouse between Keys and guitars ends with the Tabla and we have the charanam. Kapil’s vocals gather energy and authority with like a crescendo on the strings in the background. Rafeeq Ahammed is the lyricist. I was blown away with the line “Akasham Pole� supported by these bass guitars and taking me back to Ilaiyaraja days. The track is mixed by Abin Paul, and mastered by Donal Whelan. Let us not forget to clap our hands for Anand on the Tabla and KD Vincent for all the music co-ordination.
9. Rain
Shivash Chagti threw me a splendid surprise the last time he worked with Saptak Chatterjee and gave us “Porcelain�, and I did mention to him that when the next song comes about Ill have him against a higher benchmark. Well guess what, he passed and hat is why this beautiful number is in the top and where it belongs. This one is composed and written by Sameera Bharadwaj and produced by Shivash. We have some repeat performers here in the week as Anirudh Varma plays the keyboards and Saptak Sharma is on the Tabla. The mixing and mastering duties fall on Aditya Paul and Aabir Singh does the artwork and animation. It begins with the sound of guitars and Shivash’s dewy vocals. The way the Tabla sets off suddenly shows how beautifully things area arranged and mixed in the track making it a worthwhile fusion number. When the layers of vocals together sing “let it rain�, I can sense the drops on my skin like a 4DX movie hall. There is an eerie resemblance to a great song by Phil Collins and it is called “ I wish it would rain�, weird aint it? The keys and Tabla form a very unique but enticing combination. Sameera after a brief aalap opens her lines in Telugu and she adds this classical Carnatic color and this is where I felt a Raag Hamsadhwani influence. The pause when everything comes to a standstill with the cue of the guitar, and then the lines sing “Let it rain� is a wonderful touch.
10. Bas Mein Nahi
The good days are here, I am not sure politically or economically for India, but for music I can vouch as a listener and reviewer. Chances are being offered to musicians who have been killing it in the indie scene, and now movies and web-series on OTT are doing just that. Clinton Cerejo and Bianca Gomes who are a duo called “Shor Police� just did a fabulous job for “Bob Biswas� a few months ago, and now they are scoring for another movie on Zee5. The song that I loved the most from the album “Love Hostel� is this sung by Clinton himself and he also plays the guitar. The track is mixed and mastered by Keshav Dhar with lyrical contribution from Siddhant Kaushal. The singing is excellent with very brisk electric guitars, not only accompanying but also improvising in solo interventions. The song is short and devoid of too many varying segments, but it offers a good feeling listening to the lines along with the humming that adds to the energy.
11. Ik Tu Hai
Here is another example of an a musician I know more from the world of indie music, scoring now for a mainstream Bollywood movie, and Shashwat Sachdev has impressed me with some excellent Lo-fi induced songs that carry a Indian classical base, “Dobara� first comes to mind. The plucked instruments we hear are played by Youngmin Kim, Shashwat Sachdev and Taba Chake, and when Jubin Nautiyal starts singing we feel a resemblance to “Manwa Lage�. The stuff I loved most in the initial stages are the rhythm and sounds like a water droplet, along with the Keys that mildly accompany, played by Marshall Robinson. Shashwat himself produces and mixes for the track and the fabulous output is audible as proof, and he also joins in on the vocals along with Jubin. The inspiring lines are penned by Kumaar. The interlude opens and Salman Khan is on his Sitar and if I am not wrong we hear a piece influenced by Raag Sarang first and then moving on to Maand. The transformation of the song after the 2nd minute into something more like Progressive rock piece is interesting and unexpected. The use of various percussion instruments and harmonies also make the song a worthy listen. Vivek Hariharan is the executive producer.
12. Rongbahari
Bangla music is always in the race to excellence and that is why rarely do we see a week without any songs from that region in my list. And like they say, when it rains it pours, we have two back-to-back numbers in Bangla and that too from some very popular musicians. Iman Chakraborty is the singer and it is her delivery that stuns you and keeps you on a hook that you cannot release yourself from. The Humming bit is mesmerizing and it rocks you to sleep, brings a tear down your cheeks. Ranajoy Bhattacharjee has written, composed and produced the song. There is not too much of background instrumentals, and that keeps the focus on Iman. Ranajoy stole my heart last year when he composed “Swapno perie� featuring Mekhla Dasgupta. Just go listen to that track as well.
13. Putul Ami
One of my favorite musicians in India today is Anupam Roy, because what I look for are consistency and versatility in scores and he has got them in surplus. The song is a pop number in Bangla with his usual vocals that tend to be so breezy. Anupam has written, sung and composed this, with Rishabh Ray’s fabulously groovy guitars. Kaustuv Biswas adds all the style on the bass guitars but what I also love is Nabarun Bose on the keyboards giving it a 90’s pop feeling. Sandip Parial is the drummer and the track is mixed and mastered by Shomi Chatterjee with recording engineers Sayan Ghosh and Subhranil Bose.
14. Lie to me
The debut EP is special to a band or any musician and I did really like some of the tracks here but loved “Lie to me� to the most, and it reminded me of a fantastic series featuring Tim Roth. Anyway I digress, so this song was the pick of the lot for a lot of reasons, and before I forget the music is not in Bangla, but this makes it a hat-trick of Bangla musicians this week, as Turnback Cave is a rock band from Kolkata. The electric guitars and drums which are like the spine of a rock band truly excel in this song and the band is lucky to have such gifted musicians. Let us not forget the lead vocalist who is like the brain and every word uttered is loaded with the perfect emotion, style and diction that a rock song in English demands. The band members are Arsh Das on vocals and guitars, bassist Pradyut Naha and Diptopaul Chatterjee on guitars. Akash Singha has mixed and mastered it. Do listen to their EP "Letters to another Life".
15. Banjara
Nabeel Khan’s vocals drive the song forward with that shaky vulnerable touch he adds with his voice. It makes the song very honest and personal and you want to stay invested, and the guitars only deepen the love for it. Nabeel has written, composed and sung this one, while Atul Gupta and Prashant Marathe produce the number. The guitars are played by Atul and he handles the arrangements as well while Prashant is on the Piano. Oh when Nabeel sings the words “narazgi� the scale shifts and the notes flow into my ears and head reminding me of that flute interlude in “Kannukku Mai Azhagu� scored by AR Rahman back in his early days after his debut ‘Roja’.
16. Thaaruzhiyum
The flute show begins and you know you are hearing a special Raaga based piece, and as far as my knowledge takes me it belongs to Raag Aarabhi and as it progresses I could sense some Sri Raaga also. Rahul Raj whose work I really adore has composed, arranged and programmed this song, along with all the keyboard and rhythm programming with Nikesh Chembilodu writing the lyrics. Listen to his fabulous number sung by the legendary Sujatha Mohan called “Neelambale� from the movie ‘Priest’ something even Ilaiyaraja would be proud of. The big guns come on for the vocals as KS Harishankar and Poornasree Haridas play the lead roles. Haritha Raj plays the Veena right at the beginning as well while it is Nikhil Ram on the Flute and Ethnic Winds. There is quite a lot of support on the Mridangam by Ganapathi, Balakrishna Kammath while Umashankar is om the Ghatam, and Shruthi Raj is on the ethnic percussions. The vocal exhibition is on with Harishankar delivering it with total ease. Sumesh Parameshwar plays the guitars and bass along with Naveen Napier on the bass guitars. When I had a chat with Rahul, he tells me that there any many raaga influences in the song, like Atana, Suddhasaveri, Mohanakalyani and Devagandhari.
17. Kyun Hain
This is one slow sober lullaby that just provides the perfect break from all the other genr
