A tribute to old Hindi film music. Songs of the 30s through the 60s.

Guest Authors

Hemant Kumar’s Female Playback Singers

August 27, 2020

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav in the series of centenary tributes to Hemant Kumar (b. 16 June 2020 – d. 26 September 1989) (Is Hemant Kumar a major singer or a music director? For his fans his mesmerising singing overshadows his contribution as a music director. Ashok M Vaishnav is known for going deep […]

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Remembering Ajit Merchant

August 15, 2020

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav as a tribute to Ajit Merchant on his 95th birth anniversary (b. 15 August 1925 – d. 28 March 2011) (Talents from various regional languages have enriched Hindi film music. Music directors and singers from Bengal have occupied a central place in Hindi film music. From the recent generation […]

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Madan Mohan: The Pied Piper of Bollywood in Different Moods

July 14, 2020

Guest article by DP Rangan as a tribute to Madan Mohan on his 45th Remembrance Day (b. 25 June 1924 – d. 14 July 1975) (Two years ago to this day, DP Rangan wrote a tandem article on Roshan and Madan Mohan about their classical songs, with annotation by Subodh Agrawal, which set the stage […]

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NASEEM BANU: The Maiden Venus of Bollywood

July 4, 2020

Guest article by DP Rangan as a tribute to Naseem Banu on her 104th birth anniversary (4 July 1916 – 18 June 2002) (Naseem Banu was arguably the most bewitching beauty of her time. When Saira Banu burst on the screen in the 1960s, she was immediately hailed as a Beauty Queen, and the media […]

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Fanciful ideas about breaching embankments (6)

June 25, 2020

Guest article by Ashwin Bhandarkar (The regular readers of SoY are aware that Ashwin Bhandarkar is a BITS Pilani and IIM Calcutta alumnus and is an IT professional based in Pune. What makes him exceptional is that he has had over ten years of formal training in Hindustani classical music. This (Pun)dit (Pun)-e-kar, in a […]

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Hemantayan – Part 1

June 16, 2020

A tribute to Hemant Kumar on his Birth Centenary (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989) by guest author N Venkataraman (Lata Mangeshkar once said in an interview about Hemant Kumar, “Listening to Hemant Da, I feel as though a sadhu sitting in a temple is singing a bhajan.” But a more endearing observation was […]

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Twins Phenomena In Bollywood

May 29, 2020

Guest article by DP Rangan (The prolific guest writer DP Rangan now writes on the twins in Hindi films, some generic tropes of these films, and gives a selection of songs from some twin films. The highlight of this post is some great songs of the vintage era. This post too has been with me […]

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The immortal voice: The echoing memories of KL Saigal on his birth anniversary

April 4, 2020

Guest article by Sharad Dutt as a tribute to KL Saigal on his 116th birth anniversary (4 April 1904 to 18 January 1947) (KL Saigal is the most towering actor-singer of our films. He was a part of our daily lives courtesy Radio Ceylon which made it a daily ritual to end its programme on […]

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In the Musical Memory of Meena Kapoor

March 17, 2020

Guest article by Shalan Lal as Part II of the Remembrance Tribute to Meena Kapoor (c. 1930 – 23 November 2017) (Shalan Lal wrote a comprehensive post on Meena Kapoor on her first death anniversary 23 November 2018. I didn’t know that she was planning to write a second part too. She sent me the […]

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Film Songs Based on Classical Ragas (13) – An afternoon with ragas: Bhimpalasi and her Sisters

February 15, 2020

Guest article by Subodh Agrawal (Subodh Agrawal, a well-known name with SoY regulars for his series on film songs based on classical ragas, is resuming his series after a break of about three years. This was primarily due to logistic issues he faced regarding proper Internet connection and computer. But as he has shown before, […]

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