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

Guest Authors

Chorus Songs in the Hindi Films of Yore: Part 3

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

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

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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MADHUBALA: The Bewitching Beauty of Bollywood

February 14, 2019

Guest article by DP Rangan as a tribute to Madhubala on her 86th birth anniversary (14 February 1933- 23 February 1969) (The regular readers of Songs of Yore are aware of the tremendous enthusiasm of DP Rangan for writing on various themes and artistes associated with old film songs. After covering themes like Horses, Tonga, […]

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Swing a song of sixpence

January 1, 2019

Swing into the New Year with guest article by Ashwin Bhandarkar (A promise made is a debt unpaid. When Ashwin Bhandarkar wrote his first guest article on 6 May 2017, titled Beena madhur madhur kachhu bol, I had indicated he would be writing more articles for SoY. Here he makes good his promise, and I […]

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Remembering my father and the legend Madan Mohan

December 25, 2018

Guest article by Sangeeta Gupta, daughter of Madan Mohan, wishing Merry Christmas to the readers (Sangeeta Gupta discovered ‘Songs of Yore’ like any other person who stumbles upon this blog while searching for something relating to old film music, and started commenting like any other reader, without wearing her identity on her sleeve. Arvinder Sharma […]

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In the Musical Memory of Meena Kapoor

November 23, 2018

Guest article by Shalan Lal as a tribute to Meena Kapoor (c. 1930 – 23 November 2017) on her first death anniversary (Meena Kapoor has not been acknowledged enough on SoY. Mumbaikar8 has drawn pointed attention to this omission, and was sore that I credited the songs of ‘Anokha Pyar’ (1948) like ‘Yaad rakhan chaand […]

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The Faint Echoes of the October Revolution: A Centenary of the Capricious Philosophy in the Socio-political life!

October 24, 2018

Guest article by Shalan Lal (No event in history has caused as much impact on the world of politics and ideas as the Russian Revolution of October 1917. And no revolution has strayed as much from its path, turning into a totalitarian regime and causing untold miseries on its people. The political edifice collapsed under […]

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Sajjad Hussain, Bollywood’s Loss

July 21, 2018

Guest article by DP Rangan to pay tribute to Sajjad Hussain on his 23rd death anniversary (15 June 1917 – 21 July 1995) (Sajjad Hussain has been acknowledged as an undisputed genius by all the stalwarts of film music. His name also became a byword for his short temper and his spats with his colleagues. […]

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Roshan & Madan Mohan: Twin Towers of Rhapsody

July 14, 2018

Guest article by DP Rangan, with annotation by Subodh Agrawal, as a joint tribute to Roshan on his 101st birth anniversary (14 July 1917 – 16 November 1967) and to Madan Mohan on his 43rd death anniversary (25 June 1924 – 14 July 1975) (Subodh Agrawal once said that we often think of music directors […]

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