Music is trendy in every Indian household. The cinema industry and music have been thick friends ever since they were introduced, and we all drool and hymn the Indian film music enormously. Behind the great melodies are the Indian music directors, who are known for their legacy, contribution, and talent in creating such treat to our ears.
Our exuberant, song-and-dance culture has compelled our filmmakers to give music an eminence which sometimes eclipses the importance given to the story! Music can make or break a film in this country, and thus its exponents — the music directors — are some of the most important cogs in the cinematic industry. Like languages, fashion, cuisine and every other cultural aspect of India, music is extremely diverse across its parts. Everything from Carnatic to hip-hop has a sway over music in our films.
While the Indian movie industry has only been vast and diverse, we equally have diverse music directors catering to different themes and languages. Today, we will cover the best Indian music director the country has ever witnessed to date with you.
A R Rahman
The legendary director and composer, A R Rahman, has to be on everyone’s list. He is a popular household favorite for several Indians and is known to carry a separate fan base among music lovers. His music is a perfect blend and balance of classical hymns and melodies with contemporary tunes. Rahman is also known internationally for his musical career and has won several applauds and awards, including Grammy, Academy Awards, and BAFTA. One can never forget this legend for years to come in the Indian music industry. He is known as India’s best music composer.
R.D. Burman
If you watched or fond of the music and movies from the 1970s-90s, you would know the legend R D Burman. His tunes and melodies are most loved after decades and years, before and after the century. He has a contemporary and classical stamp on his musical notes, with Latin, Oriental, and Arabic stamps too. Burman is viewed as one of the most popular Bollywood music directorstil date. We can never forget this musical composer and director while listening to old Bollywood classics!
O P Nayyar
Most of you may not have heard about this old Bollywood music director, O P Nayyar. But his songs in the movies in the 1950s and 60s are among the classical we still hear. He is known for his timeless musical melodies, tunes, orchestration, and the perfect partnerships with Asha Bosale and Geet Dutt.
Pritam Chakraborty
Say what you may about all the plagiarism allegations, you cannot deny that Pritam Da has enough original music in his repertoire to warrant a place here. Having worked on over a hundred films, Pritam has incorporated and blended different Indian and global styles into his music — including Rock (Life in a Metro), Sufi (Once Upon Time in Mumbai) and even Ghazals (Barfi). And there are very few better songs in this decade than ones penned by lyricist Amitabh Bhatacharya and scored by him. In ‘Barfi’ widely considered one of the best soundtracks of the new millenium,
Pritam blends Brazilian Bossa Nova music and the Indian ghazal sound seamlessly. While Pritam often gets heavily “inspired” from a lot of global popular music, he always adds his own innovative spin to the affair. With a string of good albums, he is perhaps the best Bollywood music director of the 2010s.
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
SEL is like a perfectly blended cocktail in many ways. They combine the Carnatic and Hindustani vocal tradition (Shankar), Western rock (Ehsaan) and a deep understanding of fusion including a virtual mastery over the electronic synthesizer (Loy) to bestow a desi yet global vibe to their music.
They have composed music for over 50 films across 5 languages — Hindi, English, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu. Academy Award-winning lyricist Gulzar has described their music as a sensible synthesis of popularity and class. Credited with reviving the interest of the Indian millennials into classical music with their contemporary fusion sounds, the ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’ of Indian music are certainly the best of both worlds.
