Favorite Indian pop songs

Last week, I came across some old Indian pop song videos on youtube which made me very very nostalgic. Ofcourse, we don't have a pop culture but during 90's some songs really made it to the top and made us believe that by the next decade we will have a parallel music industry with private music albums. Sadly, the pop songs in 2000's was only limited to the re-mixes of the old music or if there are some really good pop songs in the last few years, probably I am not in touch.

Anyway, I spent an entire Saturday just browsing through various videos of 90's and boy..I am surprised. There are a lot of memories and thanks to youtube, I could find those very rare gems which I never thought I could find them again.

Here are my top 10 favorites.

10) Choodi jo Khanke

Agreed, this is a girly song. But it was a sensation at that time and Richa is one of the girls.



9) Nigori kaisi jawani hai

This was probably from the late 80's if I am not mistaken. One of the very early pop songs that I could remember. Ila arun became a household name for such songs after this one and since this was before cable TV, parents did not have an option to switch the channels when this song was on TV.



8) Dooba Dooba

The song took it's time to catch up with people as it was too slow but when it did catch up, people were in love with the tune and video. The video had stunning visuals for it's time and too bad that this group (silkroute) did not come up with any other good songs later..



7) Afreen

Sexy.
I distinctly remember one shot where Lisa ray, in the hot sun and in a desert, wearing skimpy clothes pours sand on herself. That was too much to handle for any teenager and the haunting music and the voice of Nusrat fateh ali Khan made Lisa ray look even sexier.



6) Pyaar ho gaya

I think I was in my third year of engineering when I saw this. Sitting in my room in the lazy evenings with nothing to do, I remember watching this song over and over again whenever it played on the V channel. I remember my friend used to like this song very much but I hated this song initially but later on just fell in love with it.



5) Made in India

Ofcourse, this song has to make it's way into the list. Probably, the most iconic song of the Indian pop albums, this song must have inspired a many to venture into the pop world. I have never seen people actually buying the cassettes of a pop album in this magnitude neither before nor after this.



4) Sayonee

All I know is that this was a Pakistani song and I haven't understood the lyrics when I initially heard it and I don't understand most of it even now. But, this is intense. I can certainly feel the angst and the theme of the song and that's what matters. I fell in love madly with the song for it's sheer intensity and I think I was probably 16 or 17 then. As I did not know the band name of these guys, I couldn't find this song for years. Thanks to youtube, here it is now..



3) Ho gayi hai mohabbat

Hands down this is the most beautifully shot & probably the best romantic Indian pop song ever.
The quality of youtube does not do justice for Santosh sivan's photography.
Watching this song years later made my day and made me want to fall in love. Imagine what it would have done to the teenagers..


2) O Sanam

When I first heard and watched this song I felt that this guy must have seriously lost someone he loved in his life. This song felt so real and painful that I couldn't imagine someone just composing this song without having to feel those emotions in real life. Every image of the song, be it the women in burkhas or the guy on the camel leaving his wife in a desert, has a story to tell.



1) Paree hoon main

One of my earliest memories. I think this song made it to the scene even before we owned a TV in our home. I remember watching the song in our neighbour's home and the song used to scare me every time I saw it. The black and white images of the young girl and slow motion shots and the haunting music on the top of it just made the perfect song that I couldn't make out what it meant at my tender age. But I understood that the teacher was trying to seduce the little girl.

Sunita rao in an interview said that they didn't know what they were doing when they wrote/composed/shot this song and in all her life no matter how much effort she would put in she can never recreate that magic. I agree.