Love Bollywood

There are 33 songs here, all wrapped up in a lipstick-red case, and all but two of them were recorded in the last decade. The two glaring departures are Asha Bhosle’s classic ‘Dum Maro Dum’ from 1971’s Hare Rama Hare Krishna and Kishore Kumar’s ‘Roop Tera Mastana’ from 1969’s Aradhana – two nods to the Burman dynasty. It’s a shame there aren’t more golden oldies, but this compilation, put together by BBC Asian Network’s Raj & Pablo, is clearly for the contemporary market. It is billed as their favourite hits from Bollywood. Their taste is clearly for the contemporary.

Cheesy pop? Yes, but the energy, pizzazz and sheer impudent charm of Bollywood lets it get away with the occasional sugar-coated pop song. The first four tracks are a wall of Bollywood-style dance pop. But that’s not the whole story. The kooky ‘Zoobi Doobi’ sung by Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal is followed by the lovely tabla playing of ‘Chand Sifarish’ and the groove that both discs settle into is more laidback and, to my taste, far more enjoyable. The second album sees the sublime Alka Yagnik duet with Javed Ali on the delicately beautiful ‘Tu Muskura, one of the highlights of the compilation. Qawwali singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan provides two offerings to close the compilation – from 2010’s My Name is Khan and 2008’s Singh is Kinng. Snoop Dogg even steps in to help out the British bhangra act RDB on the Singh is Kinng soundtrack. What more could you want?