walking upstream…
Vishal Dadlani
photo: rejaul arsad · cc by 2.0 ↗Vishal Dadlani
A Mumbai-raised singer, composer, and lyricist who has lived two parallel musical lives: frontman of Pentagram, one of India's pioneering independent rock bands, and one half of the blockbuster Bollywood composing duo Vishal-Shekhar. His booming baritone and genre-hopping instincts carried him from '90s grunge-and-metal-soaked club gigs to some of Hindi cinema's biggest dance-floor anthems, including his own vocal turn on "Malhari."
the sound in question
2015
MalhariVishal Dadlani
walk the tributaries ↓
R.D. Burman1970s · Hindi film music / Filmi / Rock
Dadlani has said the first song he can remember is one his mother sang to him as a lullaby, R.D. Burman's 'Phoolon Ka Taaron Ka' from Hare Rama Hare Krishna, with her replacing a lyric with his own name. That deep-wired, melody-first sense of a Hindi film tune is the same instinct Vishal-Shekhar leaned on for their breakout score, Jhankaar Beats, a film literally about two friends obsessed with Burman's music, which won them the Filmfare R.D. Burman Award for New Music Talent.
listen: upstream & heresource: Vishal Dadlani on the R.D. Burman lullaby his mother sang him ('Phoolon Ka Taron Ka'), ahead of Indian Idol Season 16 ↗
1971
Phoolon Ka Taaron KaR.D. Burman
2003
Tu Aashiqui HaiVishal Dadlani
listen forListen for the way a Vishal-Shekhar melody often sits on a simple, singable hook before the arrangement gets busy underneath it, the same trick Burman used to make orchestral experiments feel instantly hummable.
Metallica1980s–90s · Thrash metal / Heavy metal
Dadlani has called Metallica's effect on him 'subliminal' rather than a direct sonic imitation, but it's the band he credits with pulling him toward metal in the first place; a pull '90s Pentagram wore openly, arriving in a scene where original Indian rock songs were still being built out of Deep Purple and Metallica riffs. Thirty years after the Black Album, Metallica trusted him (alongside DIVINE and Shor Police) to cut the official Hindi-language version of 'The Unforgiven' for The Metallica Blacklist.
listen: upstream & heresource: Vishal Dadlani on Metallica's 'subliminal' influence and the Hindi 'Unforgiven' for The Metallica Blacklist ↗
1991
The UnforgivenMetallica
2021
The Unforgiven (Hindi Version)Vishal Dadlani
listen forListen for Dadlani's low, compressed baritone attack, more weight and grit than pop-clean, a texture he traces back to growing up on Metallica's riffing even when the songs themselves aren't metal.
Pearl Jam1990s · Grunge / Alternative rock / Hard rock
Dadlani has recalled that Pentagram first got noticed around 1995 for playing a cover of Pearl Jam's 'Alive' so faithfully that, in his words, 'we got famous because we played it like Pearl Jam' - a vocal, grunge-inflected performance style that stuck with the band even as they moved to original material.
listen: upstream & heresource: Rolling Stone India - Dadlani on Pentagram's 1995 fame for covering Pearl Jam's 'Alive' 'like Pearl Jam' ↗
1991
AlivePearl Jam
2007
VoiceVishal Dadlani
listen forListen for the raw, full-throated belt Dadlani brings to Pentagram's own songs, the same unpolished, arena-sized vocal push Eddie Vedder made a genre signature.