Sometime in the last fortnight as I was laboring through long, never-ending work days, I tired of the playlist I’d made of the recent Tamil songs, and out of the blue started listening to Hindi music from the 90s. Random songs, most of them. And then out of a whim, I youtube-d Tanha Dil by Shaan. And THAT is when the nostalgia wave hit – of the cult that came to be called Indipop – the one that dominated MTV and Channel V for nearly a decade, of “tiffin” time on school day evenings spent in front of the TV switching between the two channels, thinking Cyrus Broacha and Shehnaz were among the coolest people around, and catching up on the “new” songs during lunch breaks at school. This was class 9 upwards if I can remember right. I was quite surprised by the stream of songs that came to my memory from those years – some of them I still enjoyed immensely, and others made me go – THIS song was rage ? Bah ! 😀 Anyway, putting up some songs that I have the most vivid memories of – maybe I’ll revisit this post a few years later and bask in the flashback mode again. Don’t want to overcrowd this post – so avoiding the links. They are all over youtube.
13. Mehfuz : Euphoria
Euphoria is/was easily a favorite Indipop band. Love the earthy spirit of their music. Maeri, Dhoom Pichak and Gully were among the more popular songs back then, but Mehfuz(which I came to know of a little later) went on to become a favorite!
14. Tanha dil : Shaan
You just cannot not like this song/Shaan’s voice. Got a group and wanna sing along together? Pick this.
15. Khoya Khoya Chand : Alka Yagnik/Babul Supriyo
This was one of the songs that got lost in the multitude of songs flooding the scene then. My idea of the perfect romantic song back then.
16. Sare sapne kahin kho gaye : Alka again.
Another beautiful beautiful song.
17. Paisa: Agosh
I was introduced to this song only in college, but I reckon it must’ve come out in the same time frame. Fultoo fun song. Brilliant interlude. Unbelievable Mohanam.
18. Dooba Dooba : Silk Route
The humble beginnings of THE Mohit Chauhan. With a voice like that, he HAD to make it big no? Breezy song. Typical 90’s feel!
19. Indian Rain : Colonial Cousins
I love the entire album, but the feel of this song – aaaha !
20. Woh Chali : Bombay Vikings
This song makes me laugh now, but I have to admit I used to put mega enthu for Bombay Vikings once upon a time 😀 Same with Falguni Pathak 😛
21. Chamak Cham cham : Yesudas
Yesudas and Indipop ? A rather unlikely combination, one would think. But I remember I used to love everything about the song – the video and the cute guy in the video included 😛
22. Piya Basanti Re : Chitra & Ustad Sultan Khan
Lovely song. Just listened to it – and it transported me to Class 10 again!
23. Lucky Ali/ Adnan Sami
This post would be incomplete without a mention of these two, but I can’t pick a song. Lucky Ali has a very distinct way of singing that I quite like, but to me, all his songs sound pretty similar. Kabhi Aisa Lagta hai, maybe? Not crazy about Adnan Sami at all. Bheegi Bheegi raaton mein, if I had to pick one for the record.
I think this could go on and on, but I am not spending any more of my 100 songs on this post :P. Band of Boys, VIVA, Sunita Rao, Sonu Nigam(I LOVE his singing. But infinitely prefer his songs in movies to his albums, hence not including in this list), Kaliyon ka chaman, Vasundhara Das – what else did I miss ?
Of all things inconsequential! 
Super! What about that jagjit Singh (I think) song based off this poem we read in English lit? Set in some foreign land where an Indian girl falls in love with foreign boy n cuts her hair to buy him a helmet, while he gets her a hair ornament selling his bike? I remember seeing that song on tv multiple times between when I was in class 8 and class 12. When in 8, I was thinking ‘oh so romantic n blah’… By 12 – I would think ‘whattey muttaal this boy is. How can you sell a bike n buy a hair clip? Seriyaana loose! She is better off without him’ :S
Super list anyway! Subha mudgal not part of list a?ab ke saawan? Gori naalon ishq mittai? Kya soorath hai?
Ha ha – I very very vaguely remember some video like this – but I can’t remember which song ! 😀 Shubha Mudgal – my bad! How did I forget?! Kya soorat hai is Bombay Vikings only no?
Hey nice list of songs pavi!! brought back lotts of memories!! ana how can one forget daler mehndi paaji?? and also falguni pathak??
Ha ha swathi! I mentioned Falguni Pathak – forgot about paaji 😀 Can remember only tunak tunak now 😛
Just remembered. It was Aahista by panjam udhas, not jagjit Singh!
Daler mehndi and Alisha chinoy 🙂