MUMBAI: Hindi film industry has brought forth a lot of talent in musicians, actors and technicians. However, some of them no matter how much they worked and gave hits still didn’t get fame.
Today, we bring you a list of five underrated music directors of Hindi film industry.
Uttam Singh: We all have heard Dil Toh Pagal songs. No track in the album was mediocre. The music was composed by Uttam Singh, a veteran in the film industry. Uttam Sing, a multi-faceted musician, has been a noted violinist in old era songs, graduated being a music arranger and worked with the likes of Illyaraja. He started as an independent music director with the movie Chann Pardeshi with his musical partner Jagdish. Their pair was known as Uttam-Jagdish, which eventually separated. Some of his iconic work includes Dil Toh Pagal Hain for which he won many awards and Gadar- Ek Prem Katha. He composed music for some more movies like Govinda -Urmila Matondkar starrer Hum Tum Pe Marte Hain and Sunny Deol and Preity Zinta starrer The Hero- Love Story of a Spy. Today he has been missing from the mainstream movie scene. His last work was for the movie Honour Killing in 2015. In this world of techno sounds, we wish to hear more of his old school tunes.
Ismail Darbar: The soulful track album of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam or the dramatic album of Devdas, Ismail Dardar aced the Indianised songs like no other. He has this innate quality of using many instruments without letting it get chaotic, one of the best examples is his usage of violin in the background of Khamoshi-The Musical. He did a couple of movies like Tera Jadoo Chal Gayaa, Shakti-The Power and co-composed Kisna-The Warrior Poet with AR Rahman. He appeared on television as a judge for many music-based reality shows but his last movie release was a Kannada film in 2016.
Viju Shah: Way before EDM wave hit Indians; we had someone like Viju Shah composing some really funky songs. There is still not a party in India that doesn’t commence with Saat Samunder track. Well, he is the composer of this track. His work with director Rajiv Rai stays legendary, be it Vishwatma or Gupt: The Hidden Truth. Son of Kalyanji of the Kalyanji-Anandji duo, Viju, however, stays one of the most underrated music composers.
Vanraj Bhatia: A Royal Academy of London Gold medallist and a musicologist, Vanraj Bhatia belongs to a more senior category and a different league. In his career in Hindi film industry, his work with Shyam Benegal was most known with movies like Ankur, Mandi among others. Very few would also know that he is the mastermind behind the very popular Liril jingle. He, however, has been creatively engaged in many artistic ventures, composed music last in 2016 for a film.
M M Keervani: Baahubali series caught the fancy of millions and so did the music. Very few would know the man behind it, M M Kreem or also known as M M Keervani. A known and revered name in South industry gave some of the most soulful tracks for Hindi Films too, but somehow got lost in the noise. Be it Zakhm, Paheli, Jism, Criminal and many more.
