It was tailor-made for Mehndi

People growing up in the 1990s – yours truly included – remember Daler Mehndi as an Indipop artiste.

But there’s no two ways about the fact that the Hindi film industry didn’t waste any time in welcoming the king of Bhangra with open arms, and since then, music directors have been assigning him songs that only he can do justice to.

The latest of those was a solo from Atrangi Re.

It was titled Garda, and was three minutes and 44 seconds long.

The track, which was written by Irshad Kamil, was composed by A R Rahman.

Mehndi renD(Al)ered this (Chi)t(h)rack spiritedly

Rang De Basanti earned A R Rahman the Filmfare Award, the International Indian Film Academy Award and the Zee Cine Award in the Best Music Director category.

He was also nominated in the same category at the Star Screen Awards.

The title track of the film, which was penned by Prasoon Joshi, was six minutes and three seconds long.

The song was rendered by Daler Mehndi, and, to be honest, only he could’ve done justice to it, given his inherent gusto.

However, it was a pity that K S Chithra had to play second fiddle.

Daler Ku(na)ldn't salvage this track

Although the tagline of Lakeer, which released in 2004, was Forbidden Lines, there was nothing forbidden in any of the lines of Nach Le, inarguably the best song in the film.

It was penned by Mehboob.

A R Rahman, who composed it, reused Thaniye Tananthaniye, a song he composed for Rhythm, a Tamil film which released in 2000.

The Hindi version was renD(al)ered by a couple of men whose styles Ku(na)ldn't be more dissimilar – Mehndi and Ganjawala.

It was a chartbuster, but was sorely lacking in what a track needs to stay on the charts.