This track was PoSitiVely catchy

Shakalaka Baby, from Nayak: The Real Hero, is a prime example of a popular song from a below-par film.

It was reused in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Bombay Dreams, whose London production opened in 2002 and ran for a couple of years.

A R Rahman, wasn’t just the composer of the song, but the music director of the musical too.

Its lyrics, which made absolutely no ‘Sen’se, were penned by Anand Bakshi. It was picturised on Sushmita.

The track was rendered by Vasundhara Das, who was joined behind the M(an)icrophone by Pravin and Shiraz Uppal.

HuRraH, it was a (Sunid)hit

As surprising as it may sound, Saiyyan, an original song on the soundtrack of Nayak: The Real Hero*, became popular, despite being a run-of-the-mill track.

And there’s no doubt that it was because of the tune, the credit for which goes to none other than A R Rahman.

His knack of picking the right man (and, in this case, woman) for the job must be commended – Hans Raj Hans and Sunidhi Chauhan rendered the song, which Anand Bakshi penned.

(*Note: The remainder of the tracks in the film were Hindi versions of those from Mudhalvan.)

It waS(hank)arun-of-the-mill, but (Al)katchy song

Rukhi Sukhi Roti wasn’t just a song from Nayak: The Real Hero, but also a lesson that many young couples in love must learn – there’s nothing wrong with being ambitious, but it’s absolutely important to stay grounded and be there for your partner, even if all you can do is share a dry roti and thanda thanda paani (cold water).

Having said that, this track, which was penned by Anand Bakshi and composed by A R Rahman, could, at best, be described as an average song.

It was rendered by Shankar Mahadevan and Alka Yagnik.

(Ud)It waS(warnalath)a fairly Ka(vita)tchy number

Nayak: The Real Hero (2001) was a remake of Mudhalvan, a Tamil film that released a couple of years earlier.

Although Chalo Chalein Mitwa appeared to be a run-of-the-mill romantic number, there is no doubt that it went on to become pretty popular (for reasons that no Hindi film music aficionado has been able to, or even tried to, put his/her finger on to date).

The song was penned by Anand Bakshi and composed by A R Rahman.

(Ud)It was rendered by Mr Narayan and Kavita Krishnamurthy, who were joined behind the microphone by Swarnalatha.