2021

Dattaram Part 2: Breaking out of the Banyan Tree with ‘Other’ Singers

Dattaram May 29, 2021

Second and final part of tribute to Dattaram (1929 – 8 June 2007) We saw in Dattaram Part 1 dealing with his songs for Mukesh and Manna Dey, how his association with the Big Banyan tree, Shankar-Jaikishan, made it difficult to get out of the comfort zone of SJ. The readers Mahesh and Hans Jakhar […]

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Dattaram Part 1: Under the shadow of big banyan tree with songs of Mukesh and Manna Dey

Dattaram May 20, 2021

A big banyan tree gives shelter and protects you from elements. But this may become a trap because one may be deterred from venturing out on one’s own for the risks involved. But a human being also has an urge to venture out and stand on his own. That involves a vertical progression from earning […]

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‘क्या भूलूँ क्या याद करूँ’

Bhooli hui yaadon April 30, 2021

We had thought we would try to forget 2020 as a bad dream. The pandemic last year for most of us was a piece of statistics, a news item. It would not affect us, we all thought. Suddenly in a span of the last few weeks its second wave has struck us as a mighty […]

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Best songs of 1944: And the winners are?

Rattan-Bhanwra-Bhartrihari-My Sister April 11, 2021

Season 2 of the year-wise reviews begins I have explained in my final wrap up of the review of songs of 1945 how the idea of year-wise reviews of the best songs of the year started and why I termed the year 1945 as the end of Season 1. There was doubt in my mind […]

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Jogi, Bhogi or Dhongi

Jogi March 29, 2021

Wishing the readers and their families a very Happy Holi Colloquial equivalents of Sanskrit terms usually retain their exact meaning, such as singaar for shringaar, barkha for varsha etc. But did you give a thought how in case of jogi, which is the Hindi equivalent of yogi, the connotation changes so drastically? As regards yogi, […]

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Romancing with ‘Zindagi’

Zindagi March 16, 2021

Dev Anand described his autobiography as ‘Romancing with Life’. He got to sing on the screen, Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya, Har fikr ko dhuyen mein udata chala gaya, embodying this philosophy. But he continued with his romantic hero image well into his 70s to the dismay of his fans. To me, he […]

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Remembering Ninu Mazumdar – the composer and the singer

Ninu Mazumdar March 3, 2021

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav paying a tribute to Ninu Mazumdar on his 21st death anniversary (9 September 1915 – 3 March 2000) (Ninu Mazumdar is a big name in Gujarati music. Hence we have Ashok M Vaishnav paying a tribute to him with this guest article. He has brought us closer to other […]

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Romancing the Stranger

Ajnabi February 19, 2021

For quite some time songs like Ajnabi, tum jaane pahchaane se lagte ho, and Kuchh ajanbi se aap hain, kuchh ajanbi se hum have been buzzing like bee in my head for an inexplicable reason. Then an incredible coincidence happened. One day I decided to browse through my books collected over the years that had […]

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Songs of Raja-Rani

Thumbnail image for Songs of Raja-Rani February 7, 2021

We all love historical films of Raja-Rani, even though their story does not have much to do with reality or history, except that they pertain to well-known historical figures set in a defined period in history. These films showed the grandeur of the palace and the royals’ life style. Sohrab Modi acquired larger than life […]

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Film Songs Based on Classical Ragas (14) – The Melodious Trio: Bageshri, Rageshri and Malgunji

Raga Bageshri January 26, 2021

Greeting the readers on the 71st anniversary of our Republic Day with guest article by Subodh Agrawal (Subodh Agrawal last wrote his guest article in the series on film songs based on classical music about a year ago. That was on Bhimpalasi and her sisters Dhani, Multani and Patdeep. He again writes on a set […]

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