Best Bollywood Soundtracks 2010

It’s that time of year again where we revisit the year that has passed and recap the best and worst moments. There will be quite a lot of “Best of”- lists appearing on the interwebz but Upodcast’s lists are obvisouly the best .  So here is a rundown of the best Bollywood Albums of 2010! See the entire list after the jump!

Our friend FilmiGirl is running her “best of 2010″ lists on her blog and although usually we see eye-to-eye, for once I didn’t agree at all with the picks she made.

 So we decided to put our own of list of best Bollywood Songs together but realized that it is actually pretty hard to create list only ranked by songs. And especially coming to our top 3 we just couldnt pick single tracks that stood out. (unless you have the science of iTunes backing you up).  So instead of ranking our favorite songs, we went with our favorite Albums of 2010. Here goes nothing!

10. Once Upon a time in Mumbai-

Music Director: Pritam

Pritam might not be my favorite composer but he is extremely effective in the style of music he delivers for commercial Hindi cinema and although accusations of plagiarism are rampant, I do find myself putting his songs and albums on repeat even when the film has come and gone. He has a knack for collaborating with singers with quite unique timbres and finds songs that really suit their style ie Atif Aslam, Mohit Chauhan or Tulsi Kumar.

“Pee Loon” which had a bit of “Pehli Nazar Mein” from Race hangover but still was sweet and this could have been an Atif song so I was glad to hear Mohit chauhan grab the mic instead as a change. Although the picturization might not have been that great (The scene where Emraan dresses up his girlfriend like Dimple Kapadia in “Bobby” and then jumps her bones  just made me a throw up a little in my mouth!). “Tum Jo Aaye Zindagi mein” sung by Rahat Ali Khan and Tulsi Kumar was a nice soft ballad and barring the black face “Parda” was passable lacing the album with 3 pretty decent tracks!

9. Tees Maar Khan–

Music Director:  Shrish Kunder

I have to be honest here, I haven’t checked out the full album and the chipmunk voices on the title track do not work for me at all. But I do have a lot of faith in director Farah Khan to add oodles of entertainment and masti and actually improving on the musicality of the album by making the songs look awesome.

A Perfect example of this is “Wallah re Wallah” which would be a pretty average qawalli track if it wasn’t for a certain special appearance. And of course Tees Maar Khan does have the 2nd most awesome item number of the year in “Sheila Ki Jawani”!

8.Band Bajaa Barraat-

Music Director: Salim Sulaiman

Another soundtrack that you want to revisit after watching the movie! The Punjabi feel is heartpouding and most of the songs are high in energy especially “Ainvayi Ainvayi” .The item song “Dum Mast Mast” is a bit of a misfire but we get to see a glammed up Anushka Sharma which doesn’t happen enough. I also have a real soft spot for her, like my friend Suraj mentioned: She is the new Zinta!

The song “Tarkeebein” which was used in most of the promos wasn’t bad although the constant repeating of “Turkey mein” started to get grating…( and why was break out star Ranveer singing about Turkey anyway? Wasn’t this movie supposed to be set in Delhi?)

7.Guzaarish-

Music Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Both Hritik Roshan and Sanjay Leela Bhansali have been having rough time lately and although they pour their heart and souls in every endeavor, they do not manage to strike gold at the Box Office every time. Both the music and the movie seemed to beg the audience to love them just because  it was sincere and heartfelt but to me it seemed like that needy kid in High school that writes love poems for girls that are way to hot for him. It’s just not gonna happen,  kid! As both high school and the box office are cruel mistresses.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali first fully composed album and although “Sau Gram”,” Guzaarish” and “Udi” are poetic songs completely part of the mood and story of the movie and look beautiful, how could they not with SLB framing Aishwarya Rai-Bachan.

 I can’t help but wonder if the movie itself would have been better if he had just focused on directing and put his trust in a team of talented people around him.

6. Love Sex Aur Dhoka (LSD)-

Music Director:  Sneha Khanwalkar

Probably the most refreshing OST of the year composed by newcomer Sneha Khanwalkar who had previously composed for Dibakar Bannerjee’s “Oye Lucky Lucky”a film I wasn’t a huge fan of.

 I don’t think the movie created many ripples but was showing in quite a few film festivals (even in London) it was one of my favorites of the first half of 2010 and the soundtrack has been on repeat on my playslist all year.

When I first heard the woman’s scream followed by a gun shot at the start of LSD’s title track I had a similar feeling to hearing the Dev D album a  year ago, the same kind of excitement of listening to a fresh music composer trying to do something different whilst still being embedded in the narrative of the movie. Although the lyrics might not make it as the best sing along album for your family picnic (I am looking at you “Tu Ghandi/ Nangi Achi lagti hai” surprisingly sung by Kailash Kher). I would recommend seeking the movie and the soundtrack out if you still haven’t; it’s an underrated gem and an album you can play back to back!

Before I go into my top 5: I wanted to give some honorable mentions, these were Albums that had some great tracks on them but not enough to make them part of my top 10:

• Lamhaa:” Madnoo” and “Sajnaa” probably my 2 favorite easy listening songs of the year, rest of the album didn’t connect with me though.
• Robot: I shall only say  “O O O O ROOBOOO” maybe this was a better album in Tamil but I had the Hindi version and didn’t care too much about electrons and Newton.
• Lafangey Parindey: Our Review is on the site so you can find more of our thoughts on the movie itself. Even then I mentioned that Mohit Chauhan’s “Man Lafanga” was the only good thing about this Yash Raj films debacle. I wished this song hadn’t been wasted on this filled diaper of a movie.
• Raavan:  Again a misfire from my favorite composer of all time AR Rahman. I know most of our Bollybloggers agree that Raavanan was better than Raavan but I have not heard as much about the soundtrack. Beera is still awesome though and truly the Rahman sound we know and love with a rustic drum pattern and amazing chorus line.

Back to our list!

5. Prince: It’s Showtime-

Music Director:  Pritam

WARNING:  if you are not a fan of Atif’ Alam’ss crooning do not even consider giving this a listen as you might want to poke hot steel rods in your ears afterwards.

I think the more time has passed, the more I hate this movie. But I can’t lie that I listened a lot to the album. Being a full on Atif Aslam fanboy needs to be a requirement though as I mentioned as he’s sung the lion’s share. Tips produced the movie and being predominantly a record company every song was poppy and catchy from the Britney Spears inspired “Ishq Mein” to the bittersweet acoustic remix of “Tere Liye”. I never bother listening to the remix version of any songs but I made an exception with this album. And I still sing “Tere Liye” when riding my bike through London!

4. I Hate Luv Storys-

Music Director:  Vishal Shekhar

Probably my favorite music composer duo at this time, even if Vishal gives me shit on twitter sometimes.  I do feel that they try to do something innovative even within the constraints of the commercial powerhouses they compose for now.

Although they only had 2 major albums released in 2010 and “Anjaana Anjaani” didn’t work for me at any level, I kinda loved the OST for I Hate Luv Storys especially the “Bin Tere” in all its variations, the title track sung by Vishal himself (he does rock the mic every time he grabs it) and the dreamy “Bahara” which had an awesome Rahat Ali Khan version that was unfortunately not featured in the movie (or might have when I dozed off for a second).The album rounds off with “Sadka” and “Jab Mila Tu” which weren’t too innovative but successfully served their purpose. I hope to hear more from them in 2011 again!

3. Ishqiya-

Music Director:  Vishal Bhardwaj

 This album contains me overall favorite track of the year sung by the already legendary Rahat Ali Khan, you know I’m talking about “Dil to Bacha Hai Ji”. Although the title has been lifted for a Madhur Bhandarker ( a practice I truly despise) I have had the song on repeat the entire year, from the soulful first notes to when the harmonium starts backing up the melody, I was in love the first time I heard it.

Rahat once said that he decided to branch out to popular music as he could never surpass the milestones set in Classical music by his unforgettable uncle Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and after hearing his songs I’m glad he decided to do so.Â

After” Dil To…” you still have soon to be classic tracks like “Ibn-E Batuta” and “Ab Mujhe Koi” (sung by Rekha Bhardwaj) and a few remixes but the album is pretty short and sweet as usually the case when Vishal Bhardwaj composes. I hope with these best of lists we can shine the light again on this may be forgotten gem. I’m going to stop raving about it and give “Dil to Bacha hai ji” another listen…

2. Aisha-

Music Director: Amit Trivedi

Amit Trivedi might not be the most prolific of music directors but whenever he is involved I storm out to get the album without even taking a second to read up about the movie itself.

 In this case the OST was vastly superior the movie which being a adaptation of a Jane Austin novel ( or more likely an adaptation of Amy Heckerling’s Clueless) was the brain child of Sonam Kapoor and her producer sister Rhea Kapoor. Everything I have just written was the main reason I still have the movie gathering dust on my DVD shelf and have never watched it.

But the album on the other hand was ludicrously good!

From “Suno Aisha” to “Gal Mithi Mithi” there wasn’t a single track that wasn’t innovative, fresh and thought through. Even the songs that any other composer would consider filler ie “Behke Behke” and “Lehrein” were treated with the care and attention by Trivedi and did really not deserve to be part of such a vapid and superficial movie.

1. Dabangg-

Music Director: Sajid Wajid

Ok, I know a lot of reader must be balking at my choice to put the Dabangg’s OST as number one. It especially pains me to see names like Vishal Bhardwaj and Amit Trivedi come after Sajid Wajid but here are some of the reasons Dabangg is my favorite soundtrack of the year:

• Numbers: The movie and the soundtrack are the most loved by most people and however cool it is to find some underrated composers and album, this album just worked in terms of sales figures and will continue to do so probably with the next reason being an important one
• Munni Badnaam Hui: Clearly badnaami was the way to go this year. Honestly I think the kind of frenzy this song created can only be compared to Madhuri’s “Choli ke Peeche Kya” hai from Khanayak. The ultimate of Item song made me wish we had recorded our Upodcast Item Song special after his came out as it would have topped all our lists. The song was composed by Lalit Pandit as a guest for Sajid-Wajid who took care of the rest of the album and has been on repeat in every household since the first teaser trailer for the movie released. And of course Upodcast has a special bond with this track through Project Munni from our friends The Curry Smugglers!
• Complete Package: Unlike Aisha and Ishqiya, Dabangg soundtrack works for every mood and every listener. Except Munni there is still the romantic track “Chori Kya Re”, the drinking song “Humka Peeni hain” and the Rahat – Do I still need to Rave about him- Ali Khan’s “Tere Mast Mast Do Nain”, and every song was picturized pretty perfectly too without spending all their money on funding the Swiss economy.
• This is Bollywood Yaar! We think we need creativity, sensitivity but what we truly crave is a good dose of masala and this exactly what makes Dabangg delivers. To me it’s the perfect and best soundtrack of Bollywood in 2010!

 I am sure not everyone will agree with my picks but that’s what the comment section is for!

Let us know which albums or tracks we forgot!

Related articles

• Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s musical venture with Guzaarish is well received (topinews.com)
• Bhansali’s musical debut with ‘Guzaarish’ is soul-stirring (IANS Music Review) (topinews.com)
• Guzaarish review, trailer video, songs (panasianbiz.com)
• Ash’s role in Guzaarish modelled after Rekha (topinews.com)
• My take on Guzarish (bachodi.wordpress.com)