21 years of Taal: Every reason to revisit the stunning soundtrack by AR Rahman
Blending western melodies with pop and Indian folk, AR Rahman's soundtrack for Subhash Ghai's Taal remains a stunner. Here we look back at 12 interesting facts about the classic album.
With bona fide hits like ‘Ishq Bina’, Taal Se Taal’, ‘Nahin Samne Tu’, Taal endures as one of the greatest Hindi film soundtracks of all time, and a perfect cap-off for the ‘90s.
AR Rahman’s soundtrack won the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director. It also won the IIFA Award, the Star Screen Award, the Bollywood Music Award and the V. Shantaram Award
Anand Bakshi penned the affecting, unforgettable lyrics. Taal featured among the last few albums written by the great lyricist, followed by Mohabbatein, Gadar and Yaadein.
Riding the waves of ‘Chaiyya Chaiyya’, Sukhwinder Singh reunited with Rahman on Taal. The singer voiced 7 tracks in the film.
All 11 songs were faithfully recreated in Tamil, ‘Kadhal illamal’ and ‘Enge En Punnagai’ being the highlights
Kavita Kirshnamurthy led the alternative version of ‘Ishq Bina’, listed in Tamil as Kadhal illamal 2
Who is that draping Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the song Kahin Aag Lage?
Speaking about the film’s title, director Subhash Ghai had said, “I credit the name of the movie to composer AR Rahman'
Alka Yagnik had an unbelievable 1999, with chart-busting tracks in Dillagi, Kachche Dhaage, Chehraa, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Yes Boss. She won a Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer for Taal
The opening percussion in Ramta Jogi was created by Sivamani using a beer bottle.
. ‘Ishq Bina’ was originally recorded for Subhash’s unreleased war film Shikhar, meant to star Shah Rukh Khan and Jackie Shroff
Raga Dance is the only instrumental track in the album. Rahman composed another instrumental track titled Raaga’s Dance, for collaboration with British violinist Vanessa Mae.
