Guru Randhawa- The King Of Clubs

Bollywood music can be best described as “Zumba-ready” these days. While the last two decades saw a wave of original music, timeless melodies and rich lyrics, today’s OSTs are for quick ear munching. Music is consumed at pubs, during drives and at the gym – and Guru Randhawa is both an example of and exception to this pop culture behaviour. He’s everywhere, and it is (aslmost) impossible to hate him.

- Arnesh Ghose

Some of the biggest hits of 2018 were tracks like Bom Diggy Diggy (Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety), Dilbar (Satyameva Jayate), Aankh Maare (Simmba) and Morni Banke (Badhaai Ho). In 2017, the earworms were Suit Suit (Hindi Medium), Tamma Tamma (Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya) and Laila Main Laila (Raees). While this year might have been dominated by Gully Boy till now, it is definitely an exception to the remix-BDM-bhangra tapestry of film music today.

Film music used to be enjoyed in private in the ‘90s and 2000s. India didn’t have a pub culture and clubs (they mostly played international music, anyway) were a phenomenon of the metros – and for the rich. The music of that generation was melodic and orchestral by nature. It was emotive, the songs astutely positioned to play a crucial role in the film’s narrative – there would be one “OMG-you-are-so-pretty-I-am-in-love” track, an “I-wanna-bone-you-but-I-will-say-it-through-metaphors” song, the heartbreak song, a party track, sometimes something devotional would crop up, and often there would be a big celebratory end. This was back when lip-syncing was the order of the day.