6 Underrated Songs of Sonu Nigam

पूत के पाँव पालने में ही नज़र आ जाते हैं.... 

Although Mohd. Rafi is considered by many to be one of the greatest Indian playback singers of the Hindi film industry because of his ability to sing songs of different moods and varieties in a career spanning over 30 years, I am sure that if he would have seen the young Sonu Nigam performing at stage at the tender age of 4, he would himself have given his crown to him. 



Technically, Sonu Nigam is said to be Gulshan Kumar’s discovery, who in the early 90s have started to re-create golden 70s and 60s song under his banner T-Series where Sonu Nigam sung many covers of Rafi Saa’b . Perhaps because of this, he was called as Rafi Clone during his early years and still today, one can find traces of Rafi Saa’b in his voice. Further when T-Series started to make devotional songs, then Sonu Nigam’s popularity rose and because of his appearances in these songs, people started noticing his screen presence also.


Sonu Nigam’s real stint with popularity came with the TV Show “Sa Re Ga Ma” which he hosted. The show was first of its kind and was the second reality show of cable television after Close Up Antakshari. This was a game changing event for Sonu as during this show, music director started taking him seriously as a singer and he was being given a chance to be the playback voice of actors. 



1997 was an year, that changed Sonu Nigam’s career with two path breaking songs that went on to create history as well as defined his path 


Sandeshe Aate hain – Border

 Dil Deewaana – Pardes

Over the years, Sonu Nigam has become a major force in the hindi film industry. Just, when you think, he has delivered his peak, he makes his comeback with a song more melodious, more soothing than the previous, the latest example of which is “Abhi Mujh me Kahin” from Agneepath(2012). He has not only been a exceptional playback singer, but has tried his hands at pop albums, acting, music direction etc. Not only Hindi, he has recorded songs in almost all regional languages. Besides a musician, he is a top notch performer and has a niche stage presence. Those who have seen his stage performance would have certainly witnessed his witty jokes.

Today, Filmistani would take a dig at Sonu Nigam’s under rated songs that he has sung over the years and because of many reasons, these songs got lost/not much popular these days.


#6: Betab Dil Hai(Phir Milenge) – This 2004 movie starred Shilpa Shetty, Abhishek Bachchan and Salman Khan and was directed by Revathi. The movie was allegedly said to be inspired by the Hollywood Movie Philadelphia. The movie dealt with a bold subject AIDS and in 2004, there were no takers for such concepts. As the movie failed miserably at the box-office, the lesser known songs got washed away from the public memory. Enjoy this song here and do let us your thoughts.



#5: Sapne Ki Baat Main Bataun (Indipop Album): Whenever, names of pop albums of Sonu Nigam is taken, there is always mention of Kismat(feat. Tu), Deewana, Jaan, Chanda Ki Doli etc. but, very few people know that before these albums, there was an album called Sapne Ki Baat. It surely was not as immensely popular as Sonu’s other works but it surely boasted of some good music and which was lost because of the popularity of his other works. Enjoy this song by the then lesser known Sonu Nigam who had raw fresh energy. Somehow, I feel the raw fresh power of this song deserves to be listened by more audience.


#4: Zaalima(Jal): This 2013 movie, directed by Girish Malik and starring Purab Kohli  is about an overconfident water diviner, who tries to solve the drought problems in his village, but faces unforeseen circumstances when he tries to help a female ornithologist save flamingos. The film was premiered and received special mention at the "New Currents" section of the Busan International Film Festival 2013 and in the "Indian Panorama" section of the International Film Festival of India. However, there were hardly any takers for the music of this movie because of the lack of a proper production house. As a result, this highly pulsating energetic Sonu Nigam number remained unnoticed.


#3: Phir Mujhe Dil(Toh Baat Pakki) – This 2010 romantic comedy marked the debut of Marathi Filmmaker Kedar Shinde. Although, the movie was produced by Tips Music Films and boasted some known actors like Tabu and Sharman Joshi, the movie was badly promoted and not many people knew about this movie at the time of its release. As a result the movie sunk. Also, the movie was actually scheduled to release in the September 2009 but because of the multiplex strike the movie was delayed by five months and finally released in February 2010 which overall increased the cost of the movie and film makers have then decided not to spend much on its publicity. The music of the movie was given by Pritam and it was not promoted well as you can see this Sonu Nigam song is not known to many people today. This solo song has some extraordinary Alaap and you can feel his vintage voice. (Tips Music: I have a question for you. Are you so obsessed with Aatif Aslam that you will not promote a song sung by other singer.. WTH man..). Enjoy this soothing song and let us know your thoughts.

#2: Sapna Mera (Sooper Se Ooper ) – This 2013 movie was directed by Shekhar Ghosh and starred Vir Das, Yashpal Sharma and Deepak Dobriyal. The movie faced stiff competition in the week of its release with as many as six films releasing on the same day. Despite being promoted as a comedy the film almost never made you laugh.Though the film had an interesting story line with more than praise worthy comic actors, the sad under usage of talent plagued the film and hence it was a total washout. As a result, songs never became popular and this jazzy Sonu Nigam song penned by Shabbir Ahmed was lost in be-wilderness. Let us know your thoughts on this song.


#1: Do Qadam Aur Sahi – I have not mentioned the name of the movie because I know that the moment I mention the name of the movie, people will jump on the bandwagon and will point fingers at me and will say that "Hey Admin! Are you mad? This movie is so popular. How come it is underrated?" I agree friends, this movie is very popular and its songs have crafted a special place in the heart of music lovers over the period of time but unfortunately, this marvelous song is mostly unheard of. Reason being, this movie was directed by M.F. Hussain in 2005 and was a semi-autobiographical. The music of the movie received positive reviews but as the movie bombed at the Box-Office the soundtrack too remained unnoticed. Tracks such as "Yeh Rishta" and "Chinnamma Chillakkamma" became chartbusters when they were reused in the 2008 Tamil movie Sakkarakatti. (Now you must have realized why I called the song an underrated). Listen to this soulful number sung by Sonu Nigam and penned by Rahat Indori. Let us know what you feel about this song.


Hope you like the list. Do let us know your comments.


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