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

Miscellaneous

Romance of letters

June 16, 2016

I don’t remember when I last wrote a letter. I can safely say no one writes letters these days – the one you wrote in long hand to a dear friend or family, on a piece of stationary, neatly folded it, put it in an envelope, glued it, walked over to the nearest red letter-box […]

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Songs of Yore completes six years

June 7, 2016

Celebrating with some discovered gems and a tribute to Vidya Nath Seth I recall that on the fifth anniversary of SoY, Gaddeswarupji commented that many promising blogs start losing steam around the sixth year. The sixth year brought in some major constraints in my personal logistics. I had just taken up a new full-time assignment […]

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Moon and Mumbai (Bollywood)

May 20, 2016

Guest article by DP Rangan (After riding the high horse, Mr Rangan now explores the romance of moon. I have earlier mentioned he is always bubbling with energy. A seventy-plus going on seventeen, he is a great romantic – don’t be misled by his astronomical wanderings. This piece is another evidence of his zest for life. Coincidentally, […]

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Ode to the Great Indian Family

March 24, 2016

Wishing a very Happy Holi to everyone Holi was the time when one went to one’s ‘native’ place – everyone belonged to a place where he came from. In the olden days, going to the native place might involve using multimodal transport – by train to the nearest railhead, from there by bus, and the […]

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Tonga in the Tinsel World

March 5, 2016

Guest article by DP Rangan (DP Rangan has been a familiar figure in the comments section. He recently debuted as a guest author with his piece on Bollywood’s love affair with horses. I had introduced him as a member of the very senior brigade, who has the enthusiasm of a teenager. The proof is this […]

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First male dancer of Hindi films: Mumtaz Ali

October 9, 2015

I came to Mumtaz Ali in a very roundabout way. Before the Internet era I was only aware of his name as the father of Mehmood and Minoo Mumtaz etc. Internet made me aware that he was also into films, with the Bombay Talkies. Then a rare chance occurrence gave me a day out with […]

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Naushad’s Long-distance Duets of Separation

August 19, 2015

Hindi films have a very neat structure. They can be divided into three parts – romance, conflict and resolution. The lovers meet, or childhood friends grow up into lovers and dance around trees and sing romantic songs. Then the villain strikes, who lusts for the girl or her wealth, and kidnaps her; or the girl’s […]

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Songs of Yore completes five years

June 7, 2015

Celebrating with some discovered gems, Jaunpuri, Darbari and Mukhtar Begum The fifth year of Songs of Yore has been more eventful than any preceding year. The year saw centenaries of four great music personalities – Anil Biswas, Begum Akhtar, Khursheed and Kavi Pradeep (the last one in the current calendar year). We remembered all of […]

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Some thoughts on taxonomic-mathematical analysis of Hindi films and songs

April 1, 2015

(SoY regulars would recall that discussions have often given rise to questions for which I have suggested a multi-disciplinary team of film/music experts and mathematicians for more precise analysis. It seems the experts have not come forward out of modesty. They must be looking for someone to take the initiative. In this post, I am […]

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The Master of Musical Comedies C Ramchandra and his ‘Patanga’ (1949)

January 12, 2015

A tribute on C Ramchandra’s birth anniversary January 12 (12 Jan 1918-5 Jan 1982) In my simplified history of Hindi film music, when I move from RC Boral-Pankaj Mullick to Anil Biswas to Naushad, it would be quite unfair if I miss C Ramchandra. The Great Maratha (in the sense of one belonging to Maharashtra) […]

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