2019

Hemant Kumar’s duets with ‘other’ singers

Hemant Kumar, Asha Bhosle and Geeta Dutt June 16, 2019

A tribute to Hemant Kumar on his 99th birth anniversary (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989) I had written on the best duets of Hemant Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar in my first year of blogging. Then I had said: “Hemant Kumar in his voice brought the beauty of Bengal and melody of Rabindra Sangeet. […]

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Songs of Yore completes nine years

Songs of Yore Ninth Anniversary June 7, 2019

After about the fifth year, I have been approaching each anniversary of the Songs of Yore with some apprehension whether it has been able to hold the readers’ interest and maintain quality. As I look back on the ninth year completing today, I am quite satisfied, and a great deal of the credit goes to […]

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Chorus Songs in the Hindi Films of Yore: Part 3

Ye desh hai veer jawanon ka May 26, 2019

Guest article by Shalan Lal (After the earlier two articles covering the 1930s and 1940s, Shalan Lal concludes her three-part thesis on chorus songs with the Golden Decade of the 1950s. As we have come to expect from her, these articles do not merely present the representative songs of the period, but also take us […]

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Chorus Songs in the Hindi Films of Yore: Part 2

Meri pyari patang May 14, 2019

Guest article by Shalan Lal (In the first part of her three-part dissertation on chorus songs in the films of yore, Shalan Lal covered the first decade of the 1930s, dominated by three major studios: The New Theatres of Calcutta, Bombay Talkies of Bombay and Prabhat Film Company of Poona.  This was published on 2 […]

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Chorus Songs in the Hindi Films of Yore: Part 1

Kaisa chhaya hai ala ujala rasiya May 2, 2019

Guest article by Shalan Lal (Readers are aware, when Shalan Lal  writes on a topic she writes a research paper as if  for an academic seminar, even if it is for a blog like ‘Songs of Yore’. She does a similar comprehensive work to discuss the chorus songs of the films of yore. This is […]

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व्याकरण, उच्चारण और उत्पीड़न

Piya laut ke ana bhool gaye April 22, 2019

Phonetic and grammatical violence in songs Once Raja Bhoj went around his kingdom to see for himself the condition of his subjects. Seeing a frail woodcutter burdened by the weight of the log on his head, the king asked him solicitously, “किम्‌ ते बाधति भारम्‌?” Does the weight hurt you? The anguished woodcutter replied somewhat […]

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Best songs of 1946: And the winners are?

Anmol Ghadi-Shahjahan-Safar-Eight Days April 11, 2019

As I started traversing back from the 1950s to the 40s in the year-wise review of film songs, I mentioned that we are entering the era of more unknown than the known. This is best exemplified by the year 1946: Out of 153 films in the year, nothing is known about five films, whether its […]

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The Unified Theory of Fools

April Fools' Day April 1, 2019

Wishing the readers a very Happy April Fools’ Day When I wrote a sincere article, doing a comprehensive review of the songs of 1947 on the 1st April last year, Canasya commented, “you have fooled us”, because he was expecting something else appropriate to the occasion. N Venkataraman echoed the sentiments. By now, the readers […]

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Barahmasa in film songs

Barahmasa March 21, 2019

Wishing a very Happy Holi to all the readers When the first monsoon rains quench the thirst of the parched earth, and dry rivulets, water bodies and ponds get filled with water, and green shoots emerge from dry plants and trees, and the farmers rush to the slushy fields for transplantation, it’s a time for […]

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The silent giant-killer and the man of many-splendoured talents: Ravi

Ravi March 7, 2019

A tribute to the music director Ravi on his 7th death anniversary (3 March 1926-7 March 2012) How do you describe Ravi winning the Filmfare Award for the Best Music Director for the film Gharana (1961)? This was the year in which the giants of Hindi film music, Naushad (Ganga Jamuna) and Shankar-Jaikishan (Aas Ka […]

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