Songless Hindi Films

When we set out to build MySwar as a comprehensive catalog for music from Hindi films, we didn’t pay a lot of attention to films that didn’t have any songs. This became apparent during the discussion on Twitter, that followed when we published this trivia:

#TOTD – This was a songless movie. The background score for the film was composed by Vasant Desa… http://t.co/EpkDiPxV0K #r1

— MySwar (@myswar) August 12, 2013

Thanks to the “demands” of a few music lovers (!), we decided to give a shot at listing all Hindi films without any songs. For now, this blog post will serve as the repository for this list. These films are catalogued on MySwar as well but not highlighted in any of the listings. This list is not perfect – some of these films may not truly belong here and we may be missing some. For example, Pushpak was a silent film and others like The Perfect Murder and Parzania are not Hindi films. If you know of any film that we should add to this list, let us know in the comments section.

Anyway, here goes:

1. Naujawan (1937) – MUSIC: Master Mohammed
2. Munna (1954) – MUSIC: Anil Biswas
3. Kanoon (1960) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Salil Chowdhury
4. Bhuvan Shome (1969) – MUSIC: Vijay Raghava Rao
5. Ittefaq (1969) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Salil Chowdhury
6. Rakhi Rakhi (1969) – BACKGROUND SCORE: B.M. Chandavarkar
7. Sara Akash (1969) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Salil Chowdhury
8. Uski Roti (1970) – SANTOOR: Ratan Lal
9. Aashaadh Ka Ek Din (1971) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Jaidev
10. Maya Darpan (1972) – MUSIC: Bhaskar Chandavarkar.
11. 27 Down (1973) – MUSIC: Bhuban Hari (Bhubaneshwar Misra and Hariprasad Chaurasia)
12. Achanak (1973) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Vasant Desai
13. Duvidha (1973) – FOLK MUSICIANS: Ramzan Hammu, Saki Khan, Latif.
14. Ankur (1974) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Vanraj Bhatia
15. Mrigayaa (1976) – MUSIC: Salil Chowdhury.
16. Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Dastan (1978) – MUSIC: Bhaskar Chandavarkar
17. Chirutha (1980) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Salil Chowdhury
18. Satah Se Uthta Aadmi (1980) – MUSIC: Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar
19. Plot No. 5 (1981) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Salil Chowdhury
20. Sadgati (1981) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Satyajit Ray
21. Sazaye Maut (1981) – MUSIC: Vanraj Bhatia
22. Shodh (1981) – MUSIC: Shantanu Mohapatra
23. Ardh Satya (1983) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Ajit Verman
24. Godam (1984) – MUSIC: Dilip Chitre
25. Holi (1984) – MUSIC: Rajat Dholakia
26. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1984) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Vanraj Bhatia, ASSISTANT: Kersi Lord
27. Kanoon Kya Karega (1984) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Salil Chowdhury
28. Khandhar (1984) – MUSIC: Bhaskar Chandavarkar
29. Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho (1984) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Vanraj Bhatia
30. Party (1984) – No information
31. Aghaat (1985) – MUSIC: Vanraj Bhatia
32. Andhi Gali (1985) – MUSIC: Buddhadev Dasgupta
33. Damul (1985) – MUSIC: Pt. Raghunath Seth.
34. Ek Ruka Hua Faisla (1986) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Basu Chakraborty
35. Genesis (1986) – MUSIC: Pandit Ravi Shankar
36. Maati Manas (1986) – BACKGROUND SCORE: T.R. Mahalingam
37. Massey Sahib (1986) – MUSIC: Vanraj Bhatia
38. New Delhi Times (1986) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Vanraj Bhatia
39. Rao Saheb (1986) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Bhaskar Chandavarkar
40. Zevar (1986) – MUSIC: Salil Chowdhury
41. Pestonjee (1987) – MUSIC: Vanraj Bhatia
42. Pushpak (1981) – BACKGROUND SCORE: L. Vaidyanathan
43. Andhaa Yudh (1988) – MUSIC BY: Ajit Varman
44. Salaam Bombay (1988) – MUSIC: L. Subramaniam
45. Susman (1988) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Vanraj Bhatia
46. The Perfect Murder (1988) – MUSIC: Richard Robbins
47. Raakh (1989) – MUSIC: Ranjit Barot
48. Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro (1989) – MUSIC: Sharang Dev
49. Ek Din Achanak (1990) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Jyotishka Dasgupta
50. Kamla Ki Maut (1990) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Salil Chowdhury
51. Naya Zamana Nai Kranti (1990) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Navin Sharma
52. Nazar (1990) – MUSIC: Vikram Joglekar, D Wood
53. Dharavi (1991) – MUSIC: Rajat Dholakia
54. Diksha (1991) – MUSIC: Mohinderjit Singh
55. Ek Doctor Ki Maut (1991) – MUSIC: Vanraj Bhatia
56. Ek Ghar (1991) – MUSIC: L. Vaidyanathan
57. Kasba (1991) – MUSIC: Vanraj Bhatia
58. Antarnaad (1992) – MUSIC: Vanraj Bhatia
59. Purush (1992) – BACKGROUND MUSIC: Milind Chitnavis, Tushar Bhatia
60. Raat (1992) – MUSIC BY: Mani Sharma
61. Sardar (1993) – MUSIC: Vanraj Bhatia
62. Woh Chhokri (1993) – MUSIC: Sapan Jagmohan
63. Aranyak (1994) – No information
64. Tarpan (1994) – MUSIC: Rajat Dholakia
65. Drohkaal (1995) – MUSIC: Vanraj Bhatia, Anjan Biswas, Sunil Kaushik, Taufiq Qureshi
66. Naseem (1995) – MUSIC: Vanraj Bhatia
67. Jaya Ganga (1996) – MUSIC: Vanraj Bhatia
68. The Making Of The Mahatma (1996) – MUSIC: Vanraj Bhatia
69. Char Adhyay (1997) – MUSIC: Vanraj Bhatia
70. Rui Ka Bojh (1997) – MUSIC: K. Narayan
71. Hyderabad Blues (1998) – MUSIC: Dr. Bunty
72. Kairee (2000) – MUSIC: Bhaskar Chandavarkar
73. Chandni Bar (2001) – BACKGROUND MUSIC: Raju Singh
74. Ek Chhoti Si Love Story (2002) – MUSIC SCORE: Arvind Nirmal
75. Kali Salwar (2002) – MUSIC: Ved Nair
76. Chokher Bali (2003) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Debojyoti Mishra
77. Ek Din 24 Ghante (2003) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Sanjay Chakravarthy
78. Hawa (2003) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Surendra Singh Sodhi
79. Ab Tak Chhappan (2004) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Salim – Sulaiman
80. Hum Kaun Hain (2004) – MUSIC: Sanjoy Chowdhury
81. Vaastu Shastra (2004) – MUSIC: Amar Mohile
82. 15 Park Avenue (2005) – MUSIC: Jyotishka Dasgupta
83. Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara (2005) – MUSIC: Bappi Lahiri
84. Matrubhoomi: A Nation Without Women (2005) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Salim – Sulaiman
85. Naina (2005) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Salim – Sulaiman
86. Being Cyrus (2006) – MUSIC: Salim – Sulaiman
87. Gafla (2006) – MUSIC: Kartik Shah
88. Parzania (2007) – MUSIC: Zakir Hussai, Taufiq Qureshi
89. The Pool (2007) – MUSIC: Didier Leplae, Joe Wong.
90. Phoonk (2008) – MUSIC: Bapi – Tutul
91. Shoot On Sight (2008) – MUSIC: John Altman
92. Blue Oranges (2009) – MUSIC: Ajay Panchal
93. Siddharth – The Prisoner (2009) – MUSIC: Sagar Desai
94. The President Is Coming (2009) – MUSIC: Siddhartha Khosla (Goldspot)
95. Harud (2010)
96. Pairon Talle (2010)
97. Phoonk 2 (2010) – BACKGROUND SCORE: Dharmaraj Bhatt, Rahul Pandirkar
98. Rokkk (2010)
99. The Waiting Room (2010)
100. Dhobi Ghat (2011) – MUSIC: Gustavo Santaolalla
101. Kshay (2011) – MUSIC: Siddharth Bhatia, Karan Gour
102. Gangoobai (2013) – MUSIC: Ved Nair
103. Horror Story (2013)
104. The Lunchbox (2013) – MUSIC: Max Richter

Interesting information about some of these films:

• When Naujawan (1937) was released, there was a bit of a backlash and the producers of the film were accused of cheating audiences by not including songs.
• Rajat Dholakia won the National Film Award for Music Direction for the film Dharavi (1991) – a rare instance of a film with no songs winning a National Film Award for music.
• Holi did have this song – “Na Koi” – but this film has been included in the songless list since the song is really part of the film and does not have characteristics of a typical, recorded song. Amir Khan, Ashutosh Gowrikar and other actors can be seen in this song.

[Update : Removed “Current” (1991)  from the list. Per @kaurvaki, it had this song – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGTjyP6QxpE.]

[Update: Added The Pool, via Ronak Sanghvi.]

[Update: Based on inputs from @p1j – Added Naujawan and Munna. Removed Ek Haseena Thi, Paroma, Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda and Sanshodhan. They have one or more songs. Songs will be identified and added on MySwar.]

[Update: Numbered. Add interesting info.]

[Update: Added Holi (1984) and Raat (1992) based on input by @FagunB. Added interesting info about Holi.]

[Update: Added Andhaa Yudh (1988) and Ab Tak Chhappan (2004) based on input by @FagunB.]

[Update: Added The Lunchbox (2013).]

[Update: Added hyperlinks to MySwar. Added Damul (1985). Also added a number of other albums based on input from @abhisek_s, @singh_dr, @hims_negi, @mpmainka.]