best hindi film albums of the decade

Gulaal: Piyush Mishra
The very first time you hear the soundtrack of Gulaal, you’ll inevitably ask, where were you all these days, Piyush Mishra? Easily the most authoritative and innovative work of our times, this was a one-man show all the way. Penning the lyrics, composing, singing, and even acting, Piyush Mishra floors you with his brilliance. Each and every composition was a gem, and choosing the best would be quite impossible. How often do you come cross poetry which can carry itself with or without the accompanied music;
Not that the music wasn’t brilliant, be it the brooding ‘raat ke musafir’, the raunchy ‘chakmak’ or the tongue-in-cheek ‘ranaji’. Throughout the movie, the somewhat directionless script would suddenly spring to life with a jolting ‘aarambh’ or a cynical ‘duniya’. And the poetry wasn’t restricted to the unconventional; even ‘aisi sazaa’ rose way above the mediocrity dished out in the name of lyrics these days.

The Legend of Bhagat Singh: A R Rehman
Like most of Rehman’s best works, music of ‘legend...’ does not strike you as being outstanding when you hear it for the first time. But give it a patient ear and you’ll fall in love with it. A R Rehman has the knack for choosing the perfect voice for a song, and extracting the best out of the playback singer, exemplified by ‘pagdi sambhal’, ‘sarfaroshi’ and ‘des mere’.

Swades: A R Rehman
For some reason, Rehman’s best works, quite like R D Burman, figure in movies which turn out to be duds on the BO. And his most ordinary works become runaway hits, cases in point Ghajini (atrocious by his standards) Slumdog Millionaire (definitely the most overrated of all his albums) and Taal (just above average). Rehman has introduced or discovered some of the most successful and unconventional playback singers of this decade, be it Kailash Kher in Yu hi chala chal, or mohit chauhan in masakalli.

No Smoking: Vishal BhardwajEasily the most under-rated and unheralded composition of this decade, ‘No smoking’ was again brilliant in all the three aspects, poetry, music, and rendition. To create 7 songs all focused on a cigarette, and doing it so remarkably, is something only Gulzaar could accomplish. Definitely the best from Vishal Bhardwaj after Maachis in the 90s.

Jism: M M KreemWhere has M M Kreem gone? Probably because he was associated with the Bhatt clan, his talent was criminally wasted in the Hindi film industry. The Bhatt clan movies in the past decade have come up with some of the best traditional urdu poetry, ably led by Sayeed Qadri. Awarapan and Mere Khwabon ka hare k naksh were absolutely brilliant, and were enhanced by the uncomplicated and conventional music by Kreem.

Delhi-6: A R Rehman:
Another dud with great music by Rehman. Unlike Legend and Swades, Delhi-6 did not seem to find enough takers even for its music, largely because of the concurrent brouhaha about the Oscar-winning slumdog. But I’m sure even A R Rehman would acknowledge that slumdog was way below his best, while Delhi-6 was quite close to it. Rehman’s most memorable compositions have been the devotional ones, one of which was arziyan from Delhi-6. Mohit Chauhan arrived with a bang with a superb rendition of masakkali. Along with Tere Bina from Guru, Rehna Tu was probably the best from the songs Rehman sung himself.

Omkara: Vishal Bhardwaj:
Zabaan pe laga, is reason enough for this album to appear in this list. Superbly penned by Gulzar and amazingly sung by Rekha Bhardwaj, this song and most others in the album were excellent. Notable also was the unfancied O sathi Re.

Hey Ram: Ilyaraja
There are many who emphatically aver that IlyaRaja is a much better composer than his protégé, Rehman. While I disagree with it, there’s no doubt that the rare occasions when he has composed for a hindi movie, he’s delivered.

Saathiya: A R Rehman:
Nothing more to write on Rehman, again his use of Adnan Sami in udi udi, reaffirms his knack for choosing the right singer.

Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India: A R Rehman:
The songs were ordinary by Rehman’s standards, but in the cinema hall, their impact and relevance to the script was awesome

A few more which were almost there:
· Tehzeeb by A R Rehman: Wish Rehman had not used percussion as much as he did on the songs of tehzeeb, they were melodious enough as it is. The poetry reminds you of sahir.
· MAI MEri patni aur wo by Sanjay Jaipurwale: Who can possible forget the remarkable ‘guncha’ again sung by Mohit Chauhan, or the melodious doob jaana re from this absolutely unknown composer who has since vanished from the scene. Not surprising, as no one really noticed the movie, leave alone the music.
· Rock On!!: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy: Not so outstanding more so for a musical but pretty imaginative
· Guru: A R Rehman: Two great numbers: jaage hain der tak and tere bina
· Jab We Met: Pritam: All the songs were slightly above average
· Rog: M M Kreem: Typical kreem
· Kaminey: Vishal Bhardwaj
· Namastey London: Himesh Reshammiya-Surprise
· Dev.D: Amit Trivedi: Not memorable but quite different
· Oye Lucky Lucky Oye: Sneha Khalwankar As unique as it gets, inspired by the music of rural punjab
· Welcome to Sajjanpur: Shantanu Moitra: Ek meetha marz de ke, great on the ears
· Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani by Pritham: Tu Jaane Na..