#10-Chandralekha to #1-Chandralekha. Review on Ten Best Picturised Songs of Bollywood

“Songs” – *The unique way of story telling in Indian Cinema. Indian cinema is well known for its colorful songs, with dazzling damsels dancing with 100 group dancers in lavishing sets and costumes even tough we have a category called parallel cinema made without songs winning accolades in many international film festivals. ”Musicals” are separate genre of movies in Hollywood but the whole Indian cinema falls under this category. Indian directors imagination has no bounds when it comes to picturisation of songs even if the movie has nothing great to offer. Let me get into the topic,

I asked myself “When there are lot of TV channels playing songs many time around 24 X 7 what makes you to sit up and watch the song without skipping the channel”. Here is the six important factors viz., Music, Choreography, Visuals, Art Direction(Not always), Cast, Some Unique concept. Best Picturised song is a perfect blend of all the six.

Names below each song is the credits for the song in this order

Director – Music Director – Cinematography - Art Direction – Choreographer – Cast featured

#10 Chandralekha(Chor Chor, 1994)

Maniratnam / A.R.Rahman / P.C.Sreeram / Thotta Tharani / Raju Sundaram / Anu Agarwal

The movie is a technically brilliant piece of work. This song is the first in India to be shot like a MJ video with high techno music backing unconventional seductive voice and singing of Anupama, excellent lighting pattern and cinematography(60%) which made the old Egmore Museum look like a grand backdrop of a very well crafted big glossy stage(10%), sizzling Anu agarwal(10%) wearing glittering costumes dancing to the steps of Raju Sundaram(20%). All the aspects of this song were way ahead of the time of its release.

#9 Mein Aisa Kyon Hoon(Lakshya, 2004)

Farhan Akthar / Shankar –Ehsaan-Loy / Chris Popp / Sameer Chandha / Pradhu Deva / Hrithik Roshan

The song has a quite different lazy techno with lifted interludes from MI-2.

60% Of Credits goes to Choreography, nobody else in India would have done justice to this song as much as he did. The steps would not be new for those who have watched him dancing in Tamil movies but those lazy movements with sudden twists and bending in slight fusion with Bharthanatyam makes it unique and fits well with the tempo of the song.  20% credit goes to Hrithik Roshan for his thin body executing the steps of Prabhu with ease and also for his screen presence. Rest 20% goes to vivid visuals with black and white patterned set accompanied by good lighting and camera work.

#8 Chanda Re(Sapnay, 1996)

Rajiv Menon / A.R.Rahman / Ravi K.Chandran / Thotta Tharani / Prabhu Deva / PrabhuDeva, Kajol

A haunting melody from ARR. Again in this song, Choreography takes 60% credit,

One cannot imagine a dance for such a melody but he did it. Especially watch out the pulling movements with emotions for the piano interludes, and visual showing the way they walk rhythmic to the music. Prabhu deva and Kajol(the green costume she was wearing is still in my eyes) takes 20% credit for their dance in combination with appropriate emotions flowing out through their eyes. Camera work is good with dim moonlight effect but when it visualizes an artificially crafted set it loses the credit. The remaining 20% of the credit goes to the director taking a bold foot for making the main twist of the movie to be happening in and by a song.

#7 Athisayam(Jeans, 1999)

Shankar / A.R.Rahman / Shankar / Thotta Tharani / Raju Sundaram / Aishwarya Rai, Prasanth

I think this movie was also released in Hindi, so have can included this song. The song features eight wonders of the world. The song takes eight wonder of the world(Aishwarya rai) to dance with her lover before all other seven wonders of the world. 30% credit goes to a unique concept conceived by the director of shooting a duet song before Seven Wonders of the World. 30% credit goes to the sheer beauty of Aishwarya rai and her graceful dance. 10% credits goes to her gorgeous costumes designed with lot of care to suit each location. 20% goes to camera work of Shankar for blending the beauty of Aishwarya with the beauty of the locations and finally 10% goes to the choreography, the song has a good ballad style of dance all through.

#6 Dola Re(Devdas, 2002)

Sanjay Leela Bansali / Ismail Darbar / Binod kumar Pradhan / Nitin Chadrakanth Desai / Saroj Khan / Aishwarya Rai, Madhuri Dixit

This is the richest song in this list. I love watching this song a lot but somehow I missed watching it on a big screen. Definitely watching this song in a big screen would be a great experience. I don’t know whom to give the credits, so all of them equally share 100% credits for making such visualization possible for this musically grand number. The lavishing sets, costumes of the lead and group dancers, gorgeous Aishwarya and evergreen madhuri’s classical dance, a great choreography deserving the national award received, and the camera work that captured all the above with much more grandeur. And another great aspect is with all such grandeur it didn’t lose it’s soul, the song visually delivers the emotions of the two characters well.

#5 Who Ladki hey kahan(Dil Chatha Hai, 2000)

Farhan Akthar/ Shankar – Ehsaan – Loy/ Ravi K.Chandran / Yunus Pathan / Farah Khan / Saif ali khan, Sonali Kulkarni

A highly innovative and funny picturisation. 40% credit goes to the director for the concept of the song. 30% credit goes to choreography of the song; the moment I hear the song my hands involuntarily goes up and starts waving as they do in the song, it is a very catchy step and perfectly synchs with the rhythm of the song. Rest of 30% credits goes to all other aspects cinematography, costumes and set that change as the period changes and each have taken much effort to perfectly bring the period feel on screen. I didn’t give any credits to the cast because this song works with any lead and nothing special with Saif and Sonali performing in it. Even a Tamil song was picturised taking inspiration from this song but in addition the tune and music composition also changes according to the period but with the same lyrics, if should have thought a bit about changing the music and arrangements also according to the period, this song would have become a classic in Indian cinema.

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