Emraan Hashmi songs

It was in the year 2005, when I first saw the bearded man on the television. Mike in hand, and anguish in his face, a new cult of songs was born. I like to call them Emraan Hashmi songs.

Emraan Hashmi is one actor who has done way better than his peers in the same league. Within a few years, he has proved that he can draw audiences to theatres as a solo hero. When his career will be analysed later, one aspect that will never escape the critics is the huge number of hit songs he has had.

Film after film, Hashmi has managed to make even ordinary songs a hit, even though his dancing is limited to swaying his pelvis from left to right. And it is an unignorable fact that most of the songs were sung by Himesh Reshamiyya.

Together, the two of them epitomise something that is intrinsic to us Indians – horniness. We are a very tharki country, saar. Very tharki. Repressed as we are throughout childhood and adolosence, horniness is something that comes naturally to us.

Here is where the Emraan Hashmi songs work. They make every dream imaginable, in two ways. One, that anyone can be a hero. And two, that anyone can sing.

Emraan Hashmi is no Hrithik Roshan. No bicep-flexing, brake dancing, moon-walking crap. Those are for sons of film producers. He is just a guy who walks slowly behind the girl, a perverse smile on his face, singing a slow song, and at the end of the song, he gets hot action. Emraan Hashmi is the tharki Indian’s role model.

The same goes with Himesh songs. They are generally sad in nature – the earlier ones mostly about the girl being bewafaa. The songs talk about broken hearts, and infidelity, our favourite pet themes for songs. Even though his songs were targetted at the urban audiences as well, as can be seen by the lyrics of the song:

“I love you Sayonee, I love you Sayonee, I love you Sayonee.”

“Koi Shaq? What’s up??”

Even though words like ‘What’s up’ make the song appeal to the urban audiences as well, Himesh Reshamiyya was the true voice of India. For years after his cap debuted on Indian television, Himesh’s songs were played in autos, in markets, in clubs, and in films. His song had easy lyrics, mostly with words that repeated themselves over and over, which made it easy to remember as well. Sample this:

“Zara Jhoom Jhoom, Zara Jhoom Jhoom, Zara Jhoom Jhoom Zara Jhoom”

“Aashiq Banaya, Aashiq Banaya, Aashiq Banaya Aapne”

“I love you O Sayyoni (X 3 ) Koi Shaq? What’s up??”

“Hari Om Hari, Hari Om Hari, Hari Om Hari. Hari.”

“Thathananana Tandoori Nights, Tandoori Nights, Tandoori Nights”

 

I think you get the point. Himesh made the entire nation sing. Songs of heart-wrenching pain and ‘blood-supplying’ lust. Together, Hashmi-Himesh gave wings to the entire country’s fantasies.

And so when I saw the trailer of Emraan Hashmi’s new film, there was a sense of nostalgia. It was an Emraan Hashmi song.

Hero walking behind heroine, crooning a love song with a slow beat, the unmistakable horny voice, lyrics pregnant with meaning (Tujhe dekhun aaj, tuhmein khoun aaj….), the babe walking ahead of the guy, looking back at him, and Hashmi, smiling, and approaching her….

Hit hai boss!!