Sharma’s solo fuelled nobody’s imagination

Even if one doesn’t drive, everyone, at some point or the other, has probably been to a Petrol Pump.

And the two italicised words in the aforementioned sentence constituted the title of the fourth song on the soundtrack of Shiv Shastri Balboa.

It happened to be the third solo on the soundtrack of the film, and the second male solo – it was sung by Mihir Sharma.

The song was written by Rajeshwari Dasgupta Ghose.

It was composed by Alokananda Dasgupta and Utkarsh Dhotekar.

A short track, it was just a minute and 35 seconds long.

Mandy sang it with Charan

As a listener, it is your right to listen to a song or not.

But it wouldn’t have been a surprise if people didn’t listen to the third song on the soundtrack of Shiv Shastri Balboa.

The fact that its title was a literal translation of the phrase ‘it is your right’ – Hak Tera Hai – was purely coincidental.

It was sung by Mandy Gill and Charan.

The song, which was written by Rajeshwari Dasgupta Ghose, was composed by Alokananda Dasgupta and Utkarsh Dhotekar.

The song happened to be three minutes and as many seconds long.

It was rendered by Nayantara

When a person is large-hearted, he or she is described as ‘dariya dil’, which literally means a person with a heart that’s as vast as an ocean.

Interchanging the two italicised words, we get Dil Dariya, which was the second of the four songs from Shiv Shastri Balboa in my collection.

The song was a female solo – the one who lent her voice to it was Nayantara Bhatkal.

It was written by Rajeshwari Dasgupta Ghose.

And the duo who composed it comprised Alokananda Dasgupta and Utkarsh Dhotekar.

It was four minutes and 39 seconds long.

It wasn’t AN iconic track

There’s no two ways about the fact that Shiv Shastri Balboa (2023) was an interesting title.

The film was about a man who idolised Rocky (Sylvester Stallone’s film series, whose first installment released in 1976).

Incidentally, a song from the film shared its title with one of Sridevi’s most memorable films.

It was titled Chandni.

Unsurprisingly, the song – which Aditya N rendered – wasn’t as iconic as the two aforementioned films (and will never be).

Rajeshwari Dasgupta Ghose wrote the song, which Alokananda Dasgupta and Utkarsh Dhotekar composed.

It was three minutes and nine seconds long.

Neeraj sang this poor recreation

The soundtrack of the 2011 film Ready featured a catchy number titled Character Dheela.

And spread across my blogs, the fourth track on the soundtrack of Shehzada, which released in 2023, was its recreated version, titled Character Dheela 2.0.

Pritam composed the original, and was credited with this version as well.

The man who teamed up with him for the latter was Abhijit Vaghani.

Amitabh Bhattacharya and Ashish Pandit wrote the song, which was sung by Neeraj Shridhar, and wasn’t a patch on the original.

It was a couple of minutes and 37 seconds long. 

This song wASn’t even pAASsable

One of the songs on the soundtrack of Selfiee was a version of its title track with the suffix, Aggressive Theme.

So was it any surprise that the seventh – and last – song from the film in my collection was called Vaar?

By the way, this song, which was just a couple of minutes and 51 seconds long, only managed to assault the listeners’ ears.

Vikram Montrose didn’t just compose the song, but was also one of the two people who wrote it.

The other was Abhinav Shekhar, who also sang it with Ali Aslam Shah.

 

Square sang this short song

It wouldn’t be appropriate to call Abhishek Bensla a household name, but rap enthusiasts know him by his stage name, MC Square, and also are aware of the fact that he won MTV Hustle 2.0.

Although he recently sang Sher (the sixth song from Selfiee from in my collection), there is no talk about him in Hindi film music ciricles.

It happened to be the shortest track on the soundtrack of the film – it was just a couple of minutes and 37 seconds long.

Abhinav Shekhar wrote the song, which was composed by Vikram Montrose.

Lijo ANd Chetas saNG it

If the seven songs from Selfiee in my collection were arranged in the alphabetical order, its title track would the fifth.

And if they were arranged in the ascending order of the durations, it would be the fourth – it was three minutes and 34 seconds long.

Lijo George’s and DJ Chetas’ involvement in the song was not restricted to composing it, but they were two of the five people who sang it too.

Akasa Singh, Nikhita Gandhi, and Nakash Aziz were the others.

Shabbir Ahmed and Azeem Dayani were the two men who wrote it.

 

It was another aural assAUlt

People of my vintage wouldn’t have forgotten Main Khiladi Tu Anari, the title track of the 1994 film.

Like many songs that dated back to the 1990s, the Anu Malik composition was back in an awful avatar – as a song on the soundtrack of Selfiee.

Mercifully, Malik was credited with the composition, with the one and only Tanishk Bagchi.

(Ud)It was sung by Abhijeet Bhattacharya and Narayan.

Maya Govind, who passed away last year, wrote the original, and was credited with the lyrics of the recreated version, which was three minutes and seven seconds long.

The PropheC waZ the all-rounder

If the seven tracks from Selfiee in my collection were arranged in the alphabetical order, as well as in the descending order of their durations, Kudiyee Ni Teri would be the third – it was three minutes and 39 seconds long.

It was a recreated version of Canadian singer, songwriter and record producer The PropheC’s 2018 track Vibe.

He was one of the two people who wrote and composed it.

The other, obviously, was Tanishk Bagchi.

The PropheC was also one of the two people who lent it their voices.

The other was Zahrah S Khan.

Honey wasn’t just the Sing(h)er

If the seven songs from Selfiee in my collection were arranged in the alphabetical order, Kudi Chamkeeli would be the second.

It happened to be the longest of the lot – it was four minutes and seven seconds long.

It was, in fact, one of the two tracks on the film’s soundtrack that began with the Punjabi word for ‘girl’.

Obviously, the expectations of the fans were high, because the song was not just sung by Yo Yo Honey Singh, but he wrote and composed it as well.

Unfortunately, it failed to live up to those.

It didn’t drive anyBodY crazy

My collection contains seven songs from Selfiee (2023).

If they were arranged in the alphabetical order, Deewane would be the first.

By no means would it be incorrect to state that it was an ironic title, because the song didn’t drive the listeners crazy.

Aditya Yadav wrote it with Kunaal Vermaa, and sang it with Stebin Ben.

The song was composed by Tanishk Bagchi.

By the way, if the songs from the film were arranged in the descending order of their durations, it would be the second – it was three minutes and 57 seconds long.

Ms Bagchi was the singer

The blog posts on the six songs from Lost kicked off with the longest song in the film, and concluded with the shortest (which is the subject of this post).

The song in question was Zara Hatke, and it was three minutes and 28 seconds long.

In fact, it happened to be the only song on the soundtrack of the film whose duration was under four minutes.

It was the second female solo in the film – it was sung by Madhubanti Bagchi.

The track, which was written by Swanand Kirkire, was composed by Shantanu Moitra.

It was rendered by Papon

No film soundtrack other than that of Lost, in my recent memory, has had songs by such an awesome line-up of singers.

If the six songs from that film were arranged in the alphabetical order, Roshni would be the fifth.

And if they were arranged in the ascending order of their durations, it would the second – it was four minutes and 39 seconds long.

In fact, it happened to be the shortest male solo on the soundtrack of the film – it was rendered by Papon.

Swanand Kirkire wrote the (Moi)track, which was composed by Shantanu.

Swanand (Kirki)rendered the male version

The subject of this post is the male version of Nouka Doobi.

It was the second-longest song on the soundtrack of the film – it was five minutes and seven seconds long.

In fact, it was the shorter of the two songs in it that were five minutes long.

And boy, am I glad I decided to include it in my collection.

That is because the involvement of Swanand in the song was not restricted to writing it, but he (Kirki)rendered it as well.

The man who composed the (Moi)track was the one and only Shantanu.

 

This was Ms Ghoshal’s version

If the soundtrack of a song has multiple versions, I usually prefer one to the other (or others, as the case may be).

But when it came to Nouka Doobi from Lost, I did not allow myself the chance to choose – I went ahead and picked the female version and the male version of the track.

The former was sung by the one and only Shreya Ghoshal.

It was the shorter of the two – it was four minutes and 59 seconds long.

The song which was written by Swanand Kirkire, was composed by Shantanu Moitra.

It was the title tracKK

Although I have now deleted all the videos I uploaded to my YouTube channel, one of the series I miss now is Tributes To The Departed.

And, in particular, the segment dedicated to KK.

One of his posthumous releases was Mon Re, which was the title track of Lost.

If the songs on its soundtrack were arranged in the alphabetical order, it would be the second.

And if they were arranged in the descending order, it would be the third – it was four minutes and 56 seconds long.

Swanand Kirkire composed the Shantanu Moitra composition.

It was sung by Raja

Lost – whose protagonist is a journalist – released in 2023.

And since I am one, I did not skip the film’s promos that would appear before other YouTube videos I was watching, but I did not expect the film to have any songs.

But it did – six of them, actually.

If they arranged in the alphabetical order, as well as in the descending order of their durations, Mere Maula was the first – it was five minutes and 27 seconds.

Raja Hasan lent his voice to it.

Swanand Kirkire wrote the (Moi)track, which was composed by Shantanu.

Vidhya lent it her voice

Having travelled a fair bit over the years, I can vouch for the fact that ultimately, a traveller has to come home.

That, incidentally, was the translation of a song titled Musafir Ko Ghar Hi Aana Hai.

It happened to be the other song from Faraaz in my collection.

The involvement of Sameer Rahat in the song was not restricted to composing it, but he wrote it as well.

He also arranged and co-produced it (with Siddharth Pandit).

The only he didn’t do was lend his voice to the song – the singer was Vidhya Gopal.

Khalid lent it his voice

Faraaz released in 2023.

If the two songs from the film in my collection were arranged in the alphabetical order, Khairiyat Se would be the first.

Sameer Rahat was one of the two people who wrote the song (the other being Alok Ranjan Srivastava).

He also composed, arranged, and produced the track, which doesn’t describe the current state of the Hindi film music scene.

I reckon if Rahat had his way, he would have lent his voice to the song too.

But he didn’t – the person who was credited with singing it was Khalid Ahamed.

 

Bhoomi (Aa)sang it with Arjun

Woman Desi was the third song on the soundtrack of Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat that was under four minutes long.

In fact, it happened to be the shortest song on the soundtrack of the film – it was three minutes and 34 seconds long.

By the way, it wasn’t one, but a couple of desi women who were among the three people who lent their voices to it.

One was Bhoomi Trivedi, and the other was Aasa.

Arjun Kanungo shared Sing(h)ing credits with them for it.

(Am)It was written by Shellee, and composed by Trivedi.

Mr Faridi SAng this number

Tabah Tabah was a song from Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat.

It was four minutes and seven seconds long.

In other words, it happened to be the joint fifth-longest song on the soundtrack of the film (with Ghanghor Connection).

Altamash Faridi was the best-known of the three people who lent their voices to it.

The others were Shehnaz Akhter and Anand Bhaskar.

The song, which was written by Shellee, was composed by Amit Trivedi.

So run-of-the-mill was the track that the repetition of the word ‘Tabah’ in its title, aptly, was unable to save it.

It wAS an euphemistic track

In the previous post, I mentioned that the soundtrack of Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat contained three songs that were shorter than four minutes.

The longest of those was Netflix and Chill, which was three minutes and 51 seconds long.

The title of the song was an euphemism for sexual activity.

While it was Sharvi Yadav’s only contribution to the soundtrack of the film, it was one of the two contributions of Arjun Kanungo (who could be called the voice of the soundtrack) to it.

Shellee wrote the song, which was composed by Amit Trivedi.

Chaitanya and Tawde sang it

The soundtrack of Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat contained three songs that were under four minutes long.

Mohabbat Se Kranti – which, in alphabetical order, was the sixth of those – was three minutes and 47 seconds long.

In fact, if the eight tracks on the film’s soundtrack were arranged in the ascending order of their durations, it would be the second.

It was the only contribution of Neha Tawde and Raghav Chaitanya – the two people who sang it – to the soundtrack of the film.

The song, which was written by Shellee, was composed by Amit Trivedi.

Tipu sang it with Richa

Ordinarily, others tend to look down on a ‘high-maintenance’ person.

Therefore, if she is the subject of a song, it is easy to ignore it.

However, Maintenance – a song on the soundtrack of Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat – did have one redeeming quality.

And that was the fact that Richa Sharma was one of the two people who lent it their voices.

The other was Manish J Tipu.

Shellee wrote the Amit Trivedi composition.

It happened to be the longest song on the soundtrack of the film – it was five minutes and 35 seconds long.

Abhijeet’s solo established no connection

Ghanghor Connection was the second male solo on the soundtrack of Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat – it was Abhijeet Shrivastava’s only contribution to the soundtrack of the film.

The fact that the song could be translated to, “Deep connection” was ironic – it failed to establish a connection with the listeners.

It was the joint fifth-longest song on the soundtrack of the film – it was four minutes and seven seconds long.

The song, which was written by Shellee, was composed by Amit Trivedi.

By the way, it completed the hat-trick of solos on the film’s soundtrack.

This was an Abhay solo

The soundtrack of Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat contained a couple of male solos.

Duniya, which was sung by Abhay Jodhpurkar, happened to be the longer of those – it was four minutes and eight seconds long.

In fact, if the eight tracks from the film in my collection were arranged in the ascending order of their durations, it would be the sixth.

The song was written by Shellee.

It was composed by Amit Trivedi, and was a namesake of, but not related to, the track from Dev.D (2009), whose songs were also composed by Trivedi.

It was sung by Nikhita

Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat released on February 3, 2023 (appropriately, 11 days before St Valentine’s Day).

If the eight songs from the film in my collection were arranged in the alphabetical order, Banjaare would be the first.

And if they were arranged in the ascending order of their durations, it would be the fourth – it was four minutes and a second long.

It happened to be the only female solo on the soundtrack of the film – it was sung by Nikhita Gandhi.

The song, which was written by Shellee, was composed by Amit Trivedi.