Chakraborty rendered this adapted Son(u)g

Ekla Cholo, the Bengali song penned by Rabindranath Tagore, has been adapted on numerous occasions.

One of them featured on the soundtrack of the 2005 film Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, who, according to the film’s title, was The Forgotten Hero.

But by no means will that version, which was penned by Javed Akhtar, ever be forgotten.

It was composed by A R Rahman, and was the longest track in the film – it was six minutes and five seconds long.

The Son(u)g was a duet, rendered by Nachiketa Chakraborty, a singer from Kolkata, and Mr Nigam.

Kailash’s rendition was pure class

There were three versions of Mangal Mangal, the title track of Mangal Pandey: The Rising. That was a triple treat for Hindi film music aficionados in general, and fans of A R Rahman (who composed them) in particular.

They were rendered by Kailash Kher.

Interestingly, the original was just a couple of minutes and 29 seconds long.

Its Agni version was four seconds shorter than the aforementioned version.

The third version of the track – the Aatma version – was four minutes and 19 seconds long. Sukhwinder Singh joined Kher behind the microphone.

Javed Akhtar penned them.

Kavita and Reena provided Variety

That A R Rahman is invariably at his creative best when he is composing the soundtracks of films based on Indian freedom fighters is no secret, as was evidenced by the songs of Mangal Pandey: The Rising, which released in 2005.

It wouldn’t be incorrect to state that Main Vari Vari, which was four minutes and 51 seconds long, went on to become popular.

That was attributable to the fact that Reena Bhardwaj made the most of the opportunity to share singing credits with the veteran Kavita Krishnamurthy.

The track was penned by Javed Akhtar.

Undoubtedly, Madhushree rendered (Ud)it beautifully

There’s no doubt that A R Rahman Ism(a)il(e)s ahead of Mr Darbar, who composed the remainder of the songs of Kisna: The Warrior Poet (2005) when the former had to leave it midway*.

And that reflected in the popularity of one of the tracks he composed for the film – Hum Hain Is Pal Yahaan.

Javed Akhtar penned the duet, which was soothing and worth listening to on loop.

(Ud)It was rendered by Mr Narayan and Madhushree.

(*Note: Rahman was committed to composing the music of the 2006 theatrical adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.)