Top Indian Songs of the week - 6th March 2022

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 6th 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. Khwaab He is a musician I value and rate quite highly and there have been some songs of his in the past, which I somehow overlooked, but not any more. If you don’t believe my words, just listen to the song and you will know why it is India's number 1 song for the week. Anurag Mishra smashes this one for a home run as they say in baseball, and I cannot wait for the rest of the tracks in his new original album “Lifafe�. Dreams i.e. “Khwaab� have never probably sounded so damn good before. Anurag seems to be a brilliant chap as well graduating from top institutions like NIT and IIM Indore, and he is a gain for the musical industry for sure. Anurag is already working his way up in the industry by making some headway into Bollywood and down south as well. Anurag, writes composes and sings this with style and substance but let us not forget the guitars by Hrishi Giridhar and his production along with mixing and mastering. The Keys and Anurag’s vocals both feel like a dream in-fact you wouldn’t want to ever get out of. The line “Aankhon mein tu tehra� is just a brilliant shift in notes enhancing the quality of the tune. Then comes that “oo oo oho� humming which is itself soothing, but a moment of magic happens when there is a pause for a fraction of a second. The greatest Indian musician called Ilaiyaraja once talked about the impact of pauses in songs, well I found one today. The stanza that follows the electric guitar interlude is all worth every second of your time.

2. Jashn E ali These guys aren’t going to stop anytime soon, and recently I also read a newspaper article about how Salim-Sulaiman started to produce more music on their own during the pandemic. It is not only the quantity, but the quality as well. This one is mesmerizing and will send you into a heavenly trance that you will just not want out of. The track has minimal instrumentals but depends on some fabulous vocals and enchanting harmonies. Salim-Sulaiman compose the tune while Anshuman Sharma produces it. The vocals belong to magical performers like Salman Ali, Salim Merchant, Raj Pandit and Vipul Mehta. The raag influences are glaring and to my mind they resemble Asavari. The lyrics are penned by Noor Vasaya and Salim himself. The track is recorded by Aftab Khan, and Raj Pandit. It is like the vocalists are in a competitive battle as to who can captivate the listener more and they all succeed immensely.

3. Teri khair mangaan Another brilliant Punjabi number comes in here and it has come of the most creative bits and instrumentals this week among the top 15. Can it get better if the legendary Ustaad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan himself sings this? The female lead for this one Deeba Kiran and the song is composed by Kamran Akhtar with lyrics penned by Saji Ali. Noman Rauf does all the conception and production work. The song starts of with almost a rock n roll effect on guitars and some energetic singing by Deeba. The song in my opinion shows glimpses of Raag Bhimpalasi and the way the modern leaning for instrumentals mix with the traditional style of singing stands out for me. The singing is par excellence without any question but listen to some of the electric guitar intervention in the interlude. The horns section playing in the background already my attention, but the second interlude with Horns and swaras by Ustaad Rahat is a treat.

4. Hum Thay Seedhe Saadhe , Hum Rang hain & Maange Manzooriyan– Is this the revival we were waiting for? Yes I am talking about Amit Trivedi, once the Prince of Bollywood music and he certainly lived upto that name with some splendid compositions like Dear Zindagi, Fitoor, Udta Punjab, Dev D, Ishqzaade etc. But I have been critical of his recent scores especially Bollywood songs which seem to be lacking inspiration. This song along with a few more in “Badhai Do� are certainly belonging to the top draw and I am about to review 3 of them here. The songs are not entirely fresh but the singing and instrumental arrangements clearly bring about a smile. The song itself has three versions by Raj Barman, Abhay Jodhpurkar and Shashaa Tirupati and I loved the one with the female lead. Varun Grover’s lyrics are excellent and look at the ironically inventive title “seedhe saadhe�, but the lead actors play homosexual adults. The track is mixed and mastered by Shadab Rayeen with engineers like Urmila Sutar, Pukhraj and Milan assisting and Mani Ratnam on recording. Keba Jeremiah’s guitars are a pluck of genius and Shashaa is at the top of her game being gentle in her delivery and also portraying the innocence of the character. The rhythm by Krishna Kishor and guitars are a match made in heaven and you will agree with me when you hear the stanza. Nikhil intervenes on the flute solo and he solely uplifts the number. The composition doesn’t have too many complexities . The opening lines of this song clearly remind me of the number “Yeh dil sun raha hai� from Khamoshi, which go “meri sada mein bole tu� in the stanza. I don’t remember the last time a Bollywood song came top of the charts in my rankings, so Kudos to Amit ji for that.

There are two other songs I love in this album with one being “Hum rang hain� which is straight down Amit’s alley. The harmonies really do the trick along with the strong keyboard and synth backgrounds. The electric guitars and strings are two layers are keep the song from falling down on the intensity level. Once again Shashaa carries the song with her soft tones but the high octane and high scaled singing by Nakkash Aziz and Amit boost the songs likability. Here too Varun Grover’s “Hum rang hain� referring to rainbow colors of LGBTQ pride is interesting.

Abhay Jodhpurkar sounds charming in the last song recommendation from this album called “Maange Manzooriyaan� and this one is composed by Khamosh Shah, and produced by Sunny MR.. Samyukta Narendra Zia and Sunny handle all the programming and arrangements, which are delectable in this number. Roland Fernandes is equally to the task with his guitars and additional guitars are played by Veljon Noronha. The champion is also Jitendra Thakur who is nothing short of brilliant on the Violin and Viola, and he doesn’t rest anywhere during the track. Congrats to the composer, and the entire team on production, programming and arranging these live instruments. Farhad K Dadyburjoor does the mixing and mastering. Partha Protim Das is the recording engineer.

5. I Dwell Fear was the previous track that absolutely stunned me and then I obviously had to set a high bar for this indie musician who can apparently sing in Tamil, Malayalam, English, Hindi and Arabic. Shilpa Ananth hails from Kerala but she was born, raised and also lives in Dubai. She just managed to outdo my expectations with her latest single. It is a global musical collaboration of sorts and brings in Shilpa and Aleksandra Denda who discuss the message of feminism, empowerment, female friendship and so much more and their roots extend to countries like India, Serbia and the Middle East. Shilpa’s vocals induce mystery and pathos all together and her vibrato is symbolic of the music that emanates from the Middle Eastern region. The backgrounds also are filled with instrumental sounds from the region but the eerie haunting effect cannot be denied. Shilpa and Aleksandra take up all the responsibilities in composing, writing, and recording too. Giosue Greco produces while Vladan Poppvic masters the track. The rhythms in the ending section are more promising with a different energy compared to the rest of the track. It is a song that will keep your attention and kudos to the duo for being creative in the melody and lyrics. Jovana Krstanovic does the album art work.

6. Chup chup ke We did hear a fantastic song with rock n roll styles last week from the album “Side A Side B� and it had such fantastic vocals by Rahul Rajkhowa. Here we have another stunner, which not only is the composer’s favorite from the album, but also something I love more. Sudeep Swaroop lends his own voice for this one and it is written by Nikita Agarwal. After the opening lines, the title line comes about with a relative pause in rhythm and then the electric guitar is just a wonderful instrumental expression for a period of 40 seconds. Sudeep voice and the latent coarseness is great to hear and suits the tracks tonality. Rohit Singh Bhau plays the guitars and also records, mixes and masters the track. Anand Ramakrishna’s saxophone solo plays in the background in the dying moments of the song but it creates more than a passing impact on the listener.

7. Heer ki kahani We all would have heard about Heer and Ranjha, a trahic love story from the lands of Punjab which has been shown on screens multiple times. This song is about a modern day Heer and some untold chapters in that love story. Nikita Ahuja was mighty impressive in her previous single called “Jaane tum kahan the� and this one too sticks to the mind thanks to the melody and lyrics both of which are Nikita’s contributions. She also sings this with her vocals, which are fraught with innocence and honesty. The line “who Ranjha Ranjha karti� is to die for as the notes just touch your heart. Arbaz Khan plays the guitars with Ishteyak Khan on the Tabla. There is a lot of excellent harmonies arranged and performed in the background especially in the stanza thanks to Shamita Bhatkar, Nikita and Shreya Phukan. The heartbreaking lyrics are penned by Aditya Gautam with Shamita producing the track. The programming is top notch as we also hear the Rabab in the background and Sparsh Agrawal does the additional programming and Pranav Gupta mixes and masters the track. Rupjit is the recording engineer and the project is managed by Chunky Ahuja.

8. Kaana kuyile The movie featuring Mohan Lal and Prithviraj already is a huge hit, and I also have featured one song, sung by both the male lead actors a couple of weeks ago. Deepak Dev composes an even better song this time around and he also produces and arranges the track. Deepu Sasidharan is on fire on guitars, which are the rousing, and then Evugin Emmanuel excels at the singing bits. His mild vibrato do just enough to please your ears. Anne Amie is one of my favorite singers and she does exactly what you will expect when you see her name in the song credits. The interlude is all Nikhil Rama's solo showdown as he plays the Saxophone and it feels like listening to the genius Kadri Gopalnath in AR Rahman's Anjali Anjali. The end of the interlude as a Veena bit, totally unexpected and then Anne Amie excels at the lower scale singing. You will also enjoy all the interventions in the woodwinds by Nikhil. Deepak records while Donal Whelan masters the track.

9. Laagni Like I said maybe it is just a revival or that he is spreading his wings wide with albums in Bollywood, and regional languages along with indie music in various languages under AT Azad. This is one of the best songs from the Gujarati album “Prem Prakaran� and it is a complete song with some excellent singing and live instruments. The way the song starts it sounds like yet another Amit Trivedi number we have heard, but as we progress the solo Flute by one other than Paras Nath sends you into oblivion and all you care about in the world now is music. The song is composed and performed by Amit, with lyrics by Niren Bhatt, but the highlight is Ishani Dave’s female vocals in the lead. Raja Rasaily a long time associate of Amit co-produces the song along with the composer. The rhythms are keyboards produce an effect that remind us of the 1990s pop like if you listen to bands like ‘A-ha’. There are definite traces of Raag Hamsadhwani, especially when you hear the flute bits in the segment before the stanza. After the interludes the segment continues into something even more melodious. The guitars also are excellent along with the drums and keyboards. The track is mixed and mastered by Shadab Rayeen, with Pukhraj and Milan assisting on mixing. Urmila Sutar works as the sound engineer.

10.Deewane A Punjabi melody that is devoid of gunshots and usual rhythms, and when that happens the melody in these tunes stand out. Surtal Kulaar has written and composed this under the music direction of RS Kaushik and Surtal. Kamal Khan produces this along with Sammy Oberoi and Kamal also lends performs with his unmistakable voice. The guitar solo in the interlude is classy and you can hear the Flute interventions with Shivranjani Kaur’s soulful singing. The song has some influences of Raag Pilu ( Kaapi in Carnatic) according to me.

11. Ghuri Suasunn Papon has been very active during the last 2 years and I have loved some of his original compositions. IN fact this whole new EP called “Jajabori� was created and ideated during the lockdowns and finally it sees the light of day. Of all the tracks in the EP I loved this song the most. Papon composes, writes, produced and programs it while Ayan De has mixed and mastered it. The song has an American country song tone and ring to it. It is breezy, and you could just slow dance to it and bask in the sun without a worry in the world. Ishan Das plays the guitars and adds glitz and style.

12. Tera Mera Anwesshaa and Abhay Jodhpurkar make it two in a row, as male and female leads and coming up with a very enjoyable number. The highlight is once again the singing, which is effortless and oozing with style. Raja Chowdhury is perfect on guitars and even better on bass guitars right through as you can hear a non-stop layer of notes below the main vocals. Unlike “Besabri� which was composed by Anwesshaa herself, this one is composed and arranged by Ananjan Chakraborty. The song probably got me thinking if there was some influence of Raag Desh, but it also had similarities to the fantastic song by Pritam “Aaoge Jab Tum� which was based on Raag Tilak Kamod, and apparently there are similarities between the two Raagas. Kohinoor Mukherjee mixes and masters the track and Anasmita Ghosh writes these lovely words.

13. Back 2 reality Namita Anand a.k.a. Nami composes, writes and performs this number and other than the mood that the song creates, the innovative rhythms really worked well. It begins with a slow tempo and that too a Tabla and then shifts into some modern percussions. The track is produced by Gokul Anand and Ranjith Govind. The track is mastered by Chennai based producer and musician Michael Timothy. Nitin Raj directs the video with assistance from Vinu Krithik. There are some traces of Raag Jog when you pay a little attention and the guitars keep the melody in tact for the track. The video credits are as following with Murshitha Sheereen as DOP, Ritesh Rohan on editing, Arya Giri on styling, Paavana Mohan on make-up.

14. Take me easy The song begins and I almost assumed it is a single by Dhruv Visvanath. That is how the resemblance of the voice and the style of music was, and it is only meant to be a compliment to the youngster Fieto Rohit. He writes, composes and performs this very engaging number and it is produced by Jonathan Edwards. The humming portions are excellent and I love how the drums just intervene with an intensity. The track is mixed and mastered by Keshav Dhar and the whole output becomes quite hummable and it definitely is one for your solo car drive playlists. There is potential and it will be interesting to see how Fieto does in his future projects.

15. Move on The Pune based progressive rock band has been in the thick of things for a while now making some fantastic singles and wholesome EPs. The latest album Dear Diary has some good music as well but I particularly loved Move On. The band comprises of Collin Francis on vocals, Abhishek Mujumdar on drums, Robert Alex on bass and Siddharth Amarnath on guitars. It begins with such a scintillating effect as Collin's vocals and the guitars compete for the listener's attention. The track is produced by the band and Shubham Gurung who has also done the mixing and mastering. Collin's vocals are cathartic and a source of trance like calm as he sings his own words. All the artwork is done by Deekshita Jagdish.