The festival of colours, Holi brings all the joyful moments in life in India. The festival is celebrated with fervour all over the nation, in which every Indians indulges in true masti, love, affection and not to forget lifetime memories. Over the years, in Bollywood various filmmakers have incorporated songs and dance in their films depicting the joy and passion of this colourful festival. We take a look at nine best Holi songs that have made Holi a memorable event even in our cinema.

Mother India (1957)
Director: Mehboob
Music Director: Naushad
Cast: Nargis, Sunil Dutt and Rajendra Kumar
The film will always be remembered as a milestone in Indian cinema. The film was not only a box-office hit but also created history worldwide in the late 50s’. The song Holi aayi ri Kanhaye Holi aayi re… was one of the highlights of Mehboob’s masterpiece. The joyful, chhed-chhad mood was well captured by the legendary filmmaker showing how all the villagers come together to celebrate the beautiful festival.

Naushad’s music gave a magical touch and Sunil Dutt brought humour in his real typical way to capture the real emotions in the film.

Navrang (1959)
Director: V Shantaram
Music Director: C Ramachandra
Cast: Sandhya and Mahipal
V Shantaram’s Navrang will always remembered for Sandhya’s beautiful dances in the film along with C Ramachandra’s soul stirring music. The song Arre ja re hat natkhat palat ke doongi gali re… was beautiful choreographed and is one of the most unforgettable songs of Holi. The beautiful song, melodious music and the flawless dance by Sandhya captivated each and every audience for years to come by.

Sandhya portrayed two faces of male and female in the song. She danced with such magnificence that it was difficult to differentiate whether she was dancing face front in male’s mask or else her female. Such was the beauty of choreography in those golden years of Indian cinema. It will always remembered for its artistic choreography and Asha Bhosle’s touch par excellence voice!

Kati Patang (1970):
Director: Shakti Samanta
Music Director: R D Burman
Cast: Rajesh Khanna and Asha Parekh
The 70s’ super-hit film is still remembered for all the histrionics – the brilliance of Shakti Samanta, Rajesh Khanna and R D Burman’s music. The film with brilliant acting, beautiful hit songs make Kati Patang an all-time favourite. The highlight of the film was the Holi song Aaj na chhodenge bas humjoli, khelenge hum Holi…. The song was on the No.1 spot in Binaca Geet Mala for a record number of weeks.
For the very first time on the silver screen, a happy and tragic song was brilliantly mixed by the musical genius of R D Burman. The situation of the widow Asha Parekh in white sari even inspired Ramesh Sippy to picturise Jaya Bhaduri and Amitabh Bachchan in Sholay during the Holi song. However, no other filmmaker could ever replicate the success of Shakti Samanta, who created an amazing situation with this Holi song till date.

Namak Haram (1973)
Director: Hrishikesh Mukherjee
Music Director: R D Burman
Cast: Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha
The film had beautiful performances by Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan, who was making his presence felt in the industry. Amitabh is the rich industrialist’s son while Rajesh Khanna is his poor childhood friend, who is a poor majdoor in his factory. The song Holi re Holi rangon ki toli… depicts the drifting apart of their friendship.
Rajesh Khanna is enjoying with his bastiwala and dancing with Rekha, his ladylove. Namak Haram will be remembered for beautiful songs, music and not forgetting histrionics of Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan.

Sholay (1975)
Director: Ramesh Sippy
Music Director: R D Burman
Cast: Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri, Sanjeev Kumar and Amjad Khan
The song Holi ke din dil mil jaate hain raango mein rang mil jaate hain…, in which Veeru (Dharmendra) really takes advantage of the festival to tease his ladylove Basanti (Hema Malini), the village tangewali. While the villagers are enjoying the festive singing and dancing, Jai (Amitabh) seems to pity watching Thakur’s (Sanjeev Kumar) daughter-in-law Radha (Jaya) in white sari at the hillock temple.

However, unlike Kati Patang, Jaya doesn’t sing like Asha Parekh in the film. Ramesh Sippy captured the ecstasy and agony of the festival and RD was at is best. Sholay broke all the records and ran for months together all over the nation.

Zakhmee (1975)
Director: Raja Thakur
Music Director: Bappi Lahiri
Cast: Sunil Dutt, Asha Parekh, Reena Roy and Rakesh Roshan
The song Zakhmee Dillon ka badla chukane aaye hain diwane diwane… had Sunil Dutt in the vengeful mood in the film. This kind of situation has never been captured in Holi songs ever by any director in any film so far.
Sunil Dutt, who is implicated in a false case, runs away from jail to take his revenge with the villains. Dutt in jet-black costume with coloured face tries to escape the police and sings the song with the local troupe. Raja Thakur did a very commendable job picturising the Holi song in a very different mood and sequence.


Silsila (1981)
Director: Yash Chopra
Music Director: Shiv Hari
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha, Shashi Kapoor, Jaya Bhaduri and Sanjeev Kumar
Can anybody ever forget the indomitable Bachchan dancing and singing Rang barse bhige chunarwali rang barse…’ in Silsila? The song became so popular that a Holi party is incomplete without this song even today.
Bachchan was at his peak then and one could hear the song on loudspeakers allover the nation come Holi. Yash Chopra beautifully captured the song with Bachchan singing in his baritone voice to bring a new essence to the song and one can easily relate to all the masti and fun.
Even though Amitabh is married to Jaya (in the film), in guise of festival he teases his ex-girlfriend Rekha much to the dislike of one and all. Silsila will be remembered for beautiful poetry, Yash Chopra’s huge canvas and casting coup. Shiv Hari has given memorable music for Yash Chopra’s banner and the folk touch was the highlight of the film.

Suadagar (1983)
Director: Subash Ghai
Music Director:
Cast: Dilip Kumar, Raaj Kumar, Manisha Koirala and Vivek Mushran
The song Imli ka bhutta beri ka phed… was picturise twice in the film. Once in a happy mood, when both Dilip Kumar and Raaj Kumar are friends and enjoying the festival together.
The second instance is when there’s Holi and friends-turned-foes again become friends because of the festival. That is the real beauty of this colourful festival, which Ghai captured very nicely. It was captured in a very touching way and emotions overflows between the two friends.

Darr (1991)
Director: Yash Chopra
Music Director: Shiv Hari
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Sunny Deol and Juhi Chawla
Ang se ang milana saajan hamein aisa rang lagana… was one of the highlights of Darr and Yash Chopra’s fascination for Holi festival. He tries to weave the magic the festival by capturing the obsessive Shah Rukh, who stalks Juhi to such an extent that he manages to enter her house with his face fully coloured.
Juhi even fails to recognise him and the situation did create a kind of eerie feeling in the film. The song was a good combination of masti, suspense, fear and brilliant choreography.
- Johnny D