2021

Mohammad Rafi’s Non-film Hindi Geets and Ghazals

Rafi December 24, 2021

A tribute to Mohammad Rafi on his 97th Birth Anniversary (b. December 24, 1924 – d. July 31, 1980) by guest author Ashok M Vaishnav and wishing Merry Christmas to all (Ashok M Vaishnav is a solid Rafi fan, without wearing it as a medallion, and without picking up a sword to slay anyone at […]

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Book review: ‘Yesterday’s Melodies Today’s Memories’

Yesterday's Melodies Today's Memories December 12, 2021

Yesterday’s Melodies Today’s Memories by Manek Premchand 1st Edition 2003 2nd Edition 2004 3rd Updated Edition: 2018 Notion Press, Chennai A book review is generally meaningful when the book has come fresh out of the mint. But there are a number of reasons why it is never too late to review ‘Yesterday’s Melodies Today’s Memories’ […]

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Rajendra Krishna with Chitragupta and Ravi: Reaching for the skies

Rajendra Krishna with Chitragupta and Ravi November 29, 2021

Guest article by Hans Jakhar in continuation of his series on Rajendra Krishna (When some readers observed that the lyricists have not been give their due importance on SOY, Hans Jakhar offered to write a series of articles on Rajendra Krishna’s combination with different music directors. He has already written two articles in the series […]

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The out of sight genius Hansraj Behl

Hansraj Behl November 19, 2021

A tribute to the great Master Hansraj Behl (19 November 1916 – 20 May 1984) on his 105th birth anniversary A fellow-blogger and SOY regular, Anup (Mehfil Mein Meri), has written an exhaustive series on Lata Mangeshkar’s songs for relatively unknown composers. He did a very sincere job, but some of us were taken aback […]

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Songs of women for the women by the women

Aao ri suhagan nari November 10, 2021

Wishing the readers a very Happy Chhath festival My fellow bloggers Madhu and Anu are apt to say, no sooner do you put two women together in our films than they start singing. There must be something about women and singing – female solos outnumber male solos by more than three times, and female duets […]

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Best songs of 1944: Final Wrap Up 4

Khemchand Prakash-Naushad-Pankaj Mullick October 30, 2021

And the Award for the Best Music Director goes to? When you think of the year 1944, you think of Naushad. That was the beginning of Naushad phenomenon with his Jewel in the crown, Rattan. This was his 13th movie, having debuted in 1940 as an independent music director, he already had five Silver Jubilees […]

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Rajendra Krishna and Madan Mohan: Classic Case of Two Geniuses at Work

Rajendra Krishna-Madan Mohan October 17, 2021

Guest article by Hans Jakhar on Rajendra Krishna’s combination with Madan Mohan (Hans Jakhar is among the regular readers of SOY who believe that the lyricists deserve greater recognition than what is generally given to them. It is true that even the serious followers of old film music give prominence to the singer and the […]

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Romancing through the Window and Door

Mere saamnewali khidki mein October 5, 2021

Window opens the outside world to those inside. If a person from outside tries to look into a window, his view is very restricted. Because of this asymmetry, window creates many interesting possibilities. Since one can see on the sly, this is the best place for voyeurs. In Rear Window (1954), James Stewart, confined to […]

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Rajendra Krishna with the Albela Karigar C Ramchandra

Rajendra Krishna-C Ramchandra September 23, 2021

A tribute to the lyricist Rajendra Krishna (6 June 1919 – 23 September 1987) on his 34th Remembrance Day by guest author Hans Jakhar (The lovers of old film music regard Rajendra Krishna with a lot of respect for a large number of immortal songs he wrote. His most prominent association was with C Ramchandra, […]

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Best songs of 1944: Wrap Up 3

Thumbnail image for Best songs of 1944: Wrap Up 3 September 17, 2021

And the Award for the Best Duet goes to? In my list of 81 MEMORABLE SONGS in the Overview Post on the best songs of 1944, I counted 17 duets. This is quite a small number, but as we have seen in the reviews of other years, duets always punch above their weight. There is […]

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