If there is one festival that has been celebrated in its full glory in Hindi Cinema, it is the festival of colors – Holi! And why not – the vibrant colors, the energy of the festival, the smiling faces, the mischievous gestures, the sensuous overtones – they all provide the rich and colorful cinematic tropes for the screen! No wonder, Holi Songs are extremely popular too – they almost form a separate genre for Hindi Film Music! We think of Holi songs, and typically there is always a Rang Barse, Holi Khele Raghuveera, Ang Se Ang Lagana, Lets Play Holi, Holi ke Din, Balam Pichkari and many other extremely popular and overplayed Holi songs that always come to mind first. But Hindi Cinema has also composed some other beautiful holi songs in this very millennium that possibly don’t get as much love as they should, and they are equally vibrant in orchestrating a sensory treat, if not more, as the more popular ones.

Enjoy this Holi with a playlist of more than a dozen less played colors, the 13 relatively less celebrated songs on the festival of colors – all from the last 2 decades. (Audio links have been provided for a few songs where video versions could not be externally linked.)
Holi Hain!
01. Dekho Aayi Holi | Mangal Pandey: The Rising (2005) | AR Rahman | Javed Akhtar | Udit Narayan, Madhushree, Srinivas, Chinmayee, Aamir Khan

02. Gali Gali | Pataakha (2018) | Vishal Bhardwaj | Gulzar | Sukhwinder Singh

03. Aa Shyam Rang Me Rang Doon | Water (2005) | AR Rahman | Raqeeb Alam | Richa Sharma, Raqeeb Alam, Surjo Bhattacharya

04. Mohe Rang Do Laal | Bajirao Mastani (2015) | Sanjay Leela Bhansali | Garima Wahal, Siddharth Singh | Pandit Birju Maharaj, Shreya Ghoshal

05. Tum Tak | Raanjhana (2013) | AR Rahman | Irshad Kamil| Javed Ali, Keerthi Sagathia , Pooja AV

06. Holi Aayi Re | Padmaavat (2018) | Sanjay Leela Bhansali | Traditional – Manganiyars & Langa’s folk song | Richa Sharma, Shail Hada

07. Koi Bheega Hain Rang Se | Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost (2003) | Anu Malik | Sameer, Anjaan | Sonu Nigam, Alka Yagnik

08. Rang Dalo Pheko Gulaal | Banaras (2006) | Himesh Reshammiya | Sameer | Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal

09. Rang Rang De | Jigariyaa (2014) | Agnel Roman, Faizan Hussain | Arun Kumar | Suchi, Jatinder Pal Singh, Yashika Sikka

10. Gori Tu Lath Maar | Toilet Ek Prem Katha (2017) | Manas-Shikhar | Garima Wahal, Siddharth Singh | Sonu Nigam, Palak Muchhal

11. Offo | 2 States (2014) | Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy | Amitabh Bhattacharya | Aditi Singh Sharma, Amitabh Bhattacharya

12. Mere Naam Tu | Zero (2018) | Ajay-Atul | Irshaad Kaamil | Abhay Jodhpurkar

13. Kanha Sang Khele Hori | Memories in March (2010) | Debojyoti Mishra | Rituparno Ghosh | Kailash Kher

Happy Holi everyone !!!

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