Various Artists - Best of Bollywood 2 - Soundtracks - CD

Western listeners can often find a trove of long-forgotten pop music on the average Bollywood compilation, with unintentionally hilarious crossovers ranging from '60s go-go to '70s blaxploitation faring highest on the kitsch scale. Still, considering the sheer avalanche of movies and music, there's quite a bit of solid music pumped out of Bollywood. The second volume in Outcaste's series of The Very Best Bollywood Songs ranges from the '60s to the '90s; since the compilers have already gotten kitsch out of the way (check out Bollywood Funk and Bollywood Breaks for details), they're free to simply pursue good music, and The Very Best Bollywood Songs, Vol. 2 has just as much as the first volume. Surprisingly, the most recent filmi songs here - "Chalo Chale Mitwa," "Sona Sona," "Mitwa," "Dil to Pagal Hai" - are the best, though just a small step down is an older song, 1973's "Yaaddon Ki Baarat" (featuring the twin titans of playback: Asha Bhosle and Mohammed Rafi).