INDIAN POP IS THE BEST! INDIAN POP MUSIC IS STILL GOING STRONG, BUT IN THE ‘90S IT REIGNED SUPREME. BE READY TO LOOK UP YOUR FAVES ON YOUTUBE, DANCE WITH ALL THE ENTHUSIASM OF A GROUPIE, AND BECOME ‘INTERNET BROKE’. words AANANDIKA SOOD
Before embarking on this piece I have a few confessions to make. First off, let me acknowledge the fact that I haven’t worked so hard on a piece before this. I don’t mean to boast but writing comes a wee bit more easily to me than other numerous things I do. This one piece took all my strength and by the end of it I was exhausted, bleary-eyed and breathless. Also I must include that I was very close to being internet-broke. Before your imagination takes off on wings and you imagine me running on a treadmill writing this piece, let me tell you why. I was exhausted by the rush of the numerous songs that filled my mindspace gushing out like a river which is suddenly allowed to flow after its path had been obstructed by a big rock.
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I was bleary-eyed from seeing one video after another on YouTube (which kind of left me internet-broke). I started with Colonial Cousins’ Sa Ni Dha Pa till the time I and Shankar Mahadevan both became Breathless. Of course, that wasn’t all. I had to travel back in time and revisit Ila Arun’s Vote for Ghagra and Bichuda Bichuda. I had to put on my headphones for Thanda Thanda Paani and Amma Dekh Tera Mundaa Bigdaa Jaaye. Sweet melody rang through the house as I raided a website for downloading Aryans’ Aankhon Mein Tera Hi Chehra, Junoon’s Sayonee, Mehnaz’s Mausam, Sahotas’ Teri Meri Gall Ban Gayi. Daler Mehndi’s Tunak Tunaked in my house and my 7-yearold added a few bhangra steps to her repertoire.
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Jassi sang Koka Tera Kuch Kuch Kehnda and Dr Zeus’ Don’t Be Shy My Honey (yes there is a sweeter version which is nothing like the Bipasha Basu number from a recent horror flick). Then came a friend for a cuppa and we together ogled Milind Sonam first in Alisha Chinai’s Made In India video and then in Sonu Nigam’s Deewana. Mother and daughter also sat down to gaze at the lovely Lisa Ray who starred in a few of my all-time favourites. One being Daler Mehndi’s Har Taraf Tera Jalwa which has the peppiest beats of all time and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s amazing rendition Afreen Afreen from the album Sangam. By the way, did you know that Daler Mehndi, in his pop videos, has given a break to quite a few beauties in Bollywood, Priyanka Chopra being one of them? Pop music, short for popular music, had started making its presence felt as early as 1950s and ‘60s when musicians began to borrow from almost all forms of music to churn out something extremely eclectic. I think we can credit Pakistani singer Nazia Hassan for kind of bringing the pop music into our bedrooms and drawing rooms with her song Aap Jaisa Koi Meri Zindagi Mein Aaye from the 1980 release Qurbani. Hassan was all of 15 years old and had met Feroz Khan, the film’s director, in UK at a party where he asked her to meet Biddu, one of the pioneers of Indian pop. And the rest as they say is history. Biddu and Hassan came out with the smashing album Disco Deewane. The album featured Nazia’s brother Zoheb and it became the best selling