For Billboard India’s newest series, ‘My Top 5’, we spoke with composer Amaal Mallik and asked him to select his Top 5 heartbreak songs. With his extensive repertoire of love and heartbreak songs, including “Yeh Awarapan”, “Soch Na Sake”, “Kaun Tujhe” and “Bol Do Na Zara”, Mallik was the ideal choice for the theme. “For me, lyrics really really matter. You will find that the five songs that I choose have a high lyrical value,” said Mallik. Read on for his five.
1. “Ehsan Tera Hoga Mujh Par” [Junglee, 1961]
“It’s a very, very old song. Composed by Shankar-Jaikishan, and written by Hasrat Jaipuri. He’s my dadi’s elder brother. There is something [about this song] to which on a human level I relate to even today. The simplicity of the lyrics… [sings] Ehsan tera hoga mujh par, dil chahta hai woh kehne do. It’s going to be 65 years to this song. But there’s never been a song which says just let my heart do the talking.”
2. “Saranga Teri Yaad Mein” [Saranga, 1961]
“This is my grandfather’s [Sardar Malik] song. People should check out the stanza, the antara as they say of this song. It is unbelievable. It’s one of the finest, the best composition of the Malik household of the last 75 years. Those notes are something even I yearn to make today.”
3. “Jaadu Teri Nazar” [Darr, 1993]
“This song, in spite of having a very romantic approach, comes from a space of heartbreak. It’s the pain of the character. And the melody if you slow it down… it feels like a very, very heartbroken melody. It has the notes of heartbreak presented in a very SRK, Bollywood style of a song. Shiv-Hari Ji were the music directors and Anand Bakshi wrote this.”
4. Veer-Zaara’s entire soundtrack [2004]
“This made me really, really emotional and it was “Tere Liye” and “Main Yahaan Hoon”, these two songs. I can’t choose one because I think they both are very very… because it comes from one composer, the entire soundtrack touches your heart. But every song of Veer-Zaara for me.”
5. “Chale Aana” [De De Pyaar De, 2019]
“From my songs, I think this is something that really hits close to home. It’s my most loved heartbreak song. A lot of love comes for this song and people ask me, ‘Aapka itna kisne dil toda jo aapne aisa gaana banaya [who broke your heart that you made a song like this]?’”
