Nineties Nostalgia

The other day as I was getting rid of old junk from the loft I found a carton filled with cassettes of all the Indi pop songs from the nineties. I looked at them for an instant and recollected how crazy I used to be to buy each of those albums. From breaking piggy banks to religiously doing all the Math practice sums to convince daddy to buy me a ‘Made in India’ by Alisha Chinai or a ‘Colonial Cousins’ by Leslie Lewis and Hariharan.

Pop music from the nineties had a unique charm of its own. Going down the memory lane these are a few songs that I still cherish.

‘O Sanam’- This one is from Lucky Ali’s debut album Sunoh. Back in 1996 this song was a big hit. I still remember listening to this song after coming back from Bharatnatyam class. MTV used to play the song on request. The video of the song was shot in Egypt and his first wife Meaghan McCleary had acted with him.

‘Sa Ni Dha Pa’- I still can’t remember whether it was Hariharan’s weird long hair or Leslie’s rendition in the song that got me hooked to this one. This was their debut album together and they called themselves the ‘Colonial Cousins’. This was one of the first music albums to have fused Western classical and carnatic music. The song begins with a prayer to Lord Ganesha (Vakratunda Mahakaya) and then picks up with Leslie singing the English lyrics,’ Something about the way you smile…” This song was a major hit back then and the duo also won the MTV Viewer’s Choice Award for this album.

‘Made in India’- This song by Alisha Chinai was one of the highest selling albums in 1995. It instantly made her a household name. The dreamy concept of a princess looking for her tall, dark and handsome ‘Indian’ Prince was able to catch the fantasy of all girls out there. Especially if the prince ends up being the dashing Milind Soman who would not want to get lost dreaming about the song???

(P.S. I’m no longer mad about Milind Soman, I’ve grown up)

‘Pal’- This is a super romantic song by K.K. the video says it all. Like all other K.K’s songs even this one is about young love. It was an award winning composition and is till played and sung in many reality shows.

‘Maine Payal hai Chankai’- This one is another personal favourite, it has been sung by none other than our Dandiya Queen, Falguni Pathak. The song has a cute video of a group of college students preparing for a talent show. They use puppets to tell their story and this song is sung in the background. The misunderstanding between the girl and the boy in the song is something all teenagers can still connect to.

‘Dhoom’- I guess this one requires no description; it was a high energy number by Euphoria, one of the first popular Indian bands. Palash Sen and Shubha Mudgal have done a fantastic job with this track. The song begins with beat boxing; ‘Dhoom pichak dhoom pichak dhoom..’

Apart from these there were many other hit singles and albums by artists like Sonu Nigam, Shaan, late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Ila Arun to name a few. The music of the nineties was something completely different from what we get to hear nowadays.