KK’s sudden passing hit all of us like a truck and listening to his songs seemed like the only way to somehow get through the sadness of it. It was then that I realised that nearly 8 out of 10 songs that I have liked in the last 15 years have been sung by him.

He was everywhere. As many have expressed – he provided the soundtrack to our lives. 

The iconic KK playlist got us through bad times and elevated the happiness of the good ones, but if you think about it, there is a subsection of it that effectively holds on its own. The KK-Emraan Hashmi playlist.

Emraan doesn’t do as many movies now, a shame because he can really act, but back in the day, he did a lot of work – and his films, irrespective of their box office performance, almost always had great songs. 

And most of these songs were sung by KK. In fact, there are songs we remember by heart, but if you ask what movie they are from, most of us would probably not be able to tell. 

For instance, Beete Lamhein is from The Train. Goes without saying that the rememberability of the film as compared to the song is astoundingly low.

The popularity of the song can be gauged by the fact that people used to watch a certain daily soap only because they’d play this number during romantic scenes. Not making this up, I am related to these “people”. 

Similarly, Mere Bina Unplugged is from Crook. A personal favourite, this song is still on my playlist and will likely always be. I haven’t even seen the movie.

This goes beyond hit song-flop movie duality though. The two of them together gave us gems after gems. The Jannat and Jannat 2 soundtrack, Dil Ibadat from Tum Mile, Tu Hi Meri Shab Hai from Gangster, the list goes on.

KK’s voice seemed so natural on Emraan Hashmi, it was tough to tell he was not the one singing. The songs featuring these two have been such a vital part of our childhood and teenage years, it’s truly unfortunate to think that they will never be collaborating again.

After KK’s demise, Emraan took to Twitter and expressed his grief, and all the sentiments came rushing back to us.

I was trying to think of a KK-Emraan song that is my favourite to end this piece with. But honestly, there is no “KK favourite” or “KK’s best”. His work has been so good, I feel wrong making that choice.