#66 Kal Ho Naa Ho: Top 100 Bollywood Albums

Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy

Lyrics: Javed Akhtar

Label: Sony Music

Director: Nikhil Advani

Through the early 2000s, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy worked with a lot of debutant directors – Rohan Sippy, Samir Karnik, Honey Irani, and of course the biggest of them, Farhan Akhtar. The 2003 movie Kal Ho Naa Ho saw another such debutant, Nikhil Advani, and this would prove to be one of the most lasting partnerships for the trio. Advani's directorial portfolio doesn't have much that counts as remarkable, but the movies almost always featured some good songs from Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. The movie also had the composers' debut with Karan Johar, and this combo too continued for multiple movies subsequently. Kal Ho Naa Ho was the high point of both the associations though, one that won Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy their first National Award for music direction.

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Best Song of Kal Ho Naa Ho: This is a no brainer, really. While the soundtrack had a fairly diverse set of songs, it was Kal Ho Naa Ho – the title song – one that qualifies among the most moving songs produced since the start of the century – that made it truly special. Javed Akhtar's pensive lines found a perfect fit in the song's melody and arrangement, and Sonu Nigam treated it to one of his finest vocal performances that very deservingly won him a National Award. 

1. Kal Ho Naa Ho (Singer: Sonu Nigam)
2. Kuch To Hua Hai (Singers: Shaan, Alka Yagnik)
3. It's The Time To Disco (Singers: KK, Shaan, Vasundhara Das, Loy Mendosa)
4. Maahi Ve (Singers: Udit Narayan, Sonu Nigam, Sadhana Sargam, Shankar Mahadevan, Sujata Bhattacharya)
5. Pretty Woman (Singer: Shankar Mahadevan)
6. Kal Ho Naa Ho (Sad Version) (Singers: Sonu Nigam, Alka Yagnik, Richa Sharma)
7. Heartbeat (Instrumental)

Listen to the entire album of Kal Ho Na Ho here:

(With contributions by Praveen VR, co-founder of musicaloud.com)

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