2011

Naushad’s best songs for Mohammad Rafi

Thumbnail image for Naushad’s best songs for Mohammad Rafi December 24, 2011

  Double tribute on their birth anniversaries Mohammad Rafi’s birth anniversary falls on December 24 (b 1924) and Naushad’s on December 25 (b 1919). This close proximity also extended to their music. Rafi was to playback singing what Naushad was to music composing – both at the commanding heights of their profession for over two […]

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Dilip Kumar’s many voices

Thumbnail image for Dilip Kumar’s many voices December 12, 2011

My tribute on his birthday December 11 I had no plans of doing this post as it is not even a week since I did my last one. I need about two weeks to organise my thoughts and squeeze bits of time to write a piece. Secondly, my focus is on songs, their themes, singers […]

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Forgotten Composers Unforgettable Melodies (4): Shailesh Mukherjee

December 6, 2011

A friend of mine is a Storehouse of Information (SoI) on music of 1950s and 60s. He has an endearing way of posing teasers. One day he asked me if I had heard of Shailesh (Mukherji), the music director. I had not. Then came a helpful one, have you heard the song Nadiya ke pani […]

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Roshan: the great melody maker for Lata Mangeshkar

Thumbnail image for Roshan: the great melody maker for Lata Mangeshkar November 16, 2011

A tribute on his death anniversary on November 16 I have expressed great admiration for Roshan at several places in my blog. Among the greatest and most melodious songs of Lata Mangeshkar, Roshan compositions occupy a very high place. He did not achieve big commercial success as some of his peers, but for music lovers […]

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Best film songs based on classical ragas

Classical ragas November 7, 2011

A round-up of Hindi film songs based on classical ragas.

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Forgotten Composers, Unforgettable Melodies (3) – C Arjun

Thumbnail image for Forgotten Composers, Unforgettable Melodies (3) – C Arjun October 27, 2011

I have not forgotten the Forgotten Composers, Unforgettable Melodies. It so happens that in a unique coincidence birth anniversaries of Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle, and death anniversaries of Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh and Kishore Kumar fall in a narrow band of two and a half months between July 31 to October 13. They are the […]

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Kishore Kumar – The best mad, crazy, comic songs

Thumbnail image for Kishore Kumar – The best mad, crazy, comic songs October 13, 2011

A tribute on his death anniversary October 13 MJ Akbar in his obituary to Shammi Kapoor wrote in India Today that one reason for Shammi Kapoor craze was that he was mad.  But who was the maddest of them all?  The great superstar Amitabh Bachchan could do a mad act with straight face.  You can […]

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My favourite Lata Mangeshkar songs by C Ramchandra

Thumbnail image for My favourite Lata Mangeshkar songs by C Ramchandra September 28, 2011

Birthday greetings to Lata Mangeshkar on September 28 Presenting my favourite Lata Mangeshkar songs composed by C Ramchandra, as my birthday greetings to her on September 28, is not a very diplomatic thing to do, given the history of their relationship. As her biographical accounts go, Lata Mangeshkar was more than a muse to C […]

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Mukesh’s best happy duets

Thumbnail image for Mukesh’s best happy duets September 17, 2011

Having recently done a list of happy songs of Mukesh, I had no intention of doing another Mukesh post anytime soon. But dustedoff, AP Joshi and Subodh Agrawal in their comments entered into an earnest discussion on ‘happy’ duets of Mukesh and requested I do a list of my favourite such duets. This opened the […]

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My favourite ‘special’ Asha Bhosle songs

Thumbnail image for My favourite ‘special’ Asha Bhosle songs September 8, 2011

My greetings on her birthday September 8 Knowing that Asha Bhosle has a huge fan following and there are people more passionate about her than Lata Mangeshkar, I have to carefully choose my words to describe my relationship with her. If I am asked to choose only 20 singers from the 1930s to 60s for […]

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