The Music

studioSunoh

The debut label after label turned down. Ten acoustic, folk-tinged songs written with the childhood friend he once sold carpets with — and a video shot among the pyramids of Cairo, the first Indian pop video filmed abroad. 'O Sanam' sat near the top of the MTV Asia charts for sixty weeks.

studioSifar

'Zero' — the title drawn from a meditation on emptiness and infinity printed inside the sleeve. The intimacy of the debut stays; the landscape widens.

studioAks

'Reflection.' A record made at the height of his mainstream visibility, yet still stubbornly unhurried — and the only album where the lyric credits scatter across half a dozen writers.

studioGori Teri Aankhen...

An album where he steps mostly behind the songs: he composes all eight and sings on three. The title track features Kavita Krishnamurthy; 'Chali Chali Man Chali' features Binjo.

studioKabhi Aisa Lagta Hai

The fourth studio album, and audibly the sound of someone deliberately working outside his comfort zone.

studioXsuie

Given away free online at a moment when the industry was getting louder and more commercial. Several of these songs were re-recorded fifteen years later on Subah Ke Taare.

studioRaasta Man

His own label, his own terms, and a tour to match. Eleven tracks in total, of which Wikipedia lists only a partial run.

studioSubah Ke Taare

A reunion with Mikey McCleary, the arranger who shaped Sunoh nearly thirty years earlier — eight warm acoustic songs, several of them re-recordings of the independent-era material.

soundtrackKaho Naa... Pyaar Hai

Not his album, but the year his voice was everywhere. Two songs from this soundtrack became the way an entire generation remembers the turn of the millennium — and won him the 2001 Filmfare for Best Male Playback Singer.

soundtrackSur — The Melody of Life

A film in which he both acted and sang. Five songs, lyrics by Nida Fazli, and a Filmfare nomination for 'Aa Bhi Ja'.