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

Music Directors

Best songs of the most unloved singer Mahendra Kapoor

January 9, 2016

A tribute on Mahendra Kapoor’s 82nd birth anniversary (9 January 1934 – 27 December 2008) I have made a number of discoveries during my association with SoY. I mentioned some in my last anniversary post. But the most startling discovery I have not yet mentioned – we are now aware of at least two persons […]

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Naushad’s Priceless Moment: ‘Anmol Ghadi’

December 25, 2015

Wishing Merry Christmas to all with a tribute to Naushad, Rafi and Noorjehan I heralded 2015 with Naushad’s Crown Jewel, Rattan (1944), and decided to celebrate the year as The Year of Naushad. I cannot think of a better way to conclude the year than to remember his next Priceless Moment in his career, Anmol […]

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C Ramchandra as Chitalkar

December 14, 2015

In the Naushad-C Ramchandra duel I have presented through the year, both seem to be evenly matched so far in spite of my known partiality towards Naushad. But as Chitalkar, the singer, CR has no competition from Naushad. As the year draws to a close, continuing the series on the Year of Naushad (with C Ramchandra in […]

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Naushad’s gems before ‘Rattan’ (1944)

December 3, 2015

It is well known that Naushad zoomed off in an orbit of his own with Rattan (1944). He had debuted four years earlier as independent music director with Prem Nagar (1940). To be exact, his first recorded song was Bata do koi kaun gali more Shyam in the voice of Leela Chitnis for Kanchan (1941), […]

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Ten best songs (solos) composed by SD Burman

October 31, 2015

A tribute to SD Burman on his 40th death anniversary (1 October 1906-31 October 1975) Music evokes strong emotions. Therefore, it is natural that SoY has seen serious difference of views on songs, singers, music directors and a whole host of related issues. But none has been as sharp as mine with Dinesh’s. It is […]

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The Great Mughal and The Empress of playback singing

September 28, 2015

Wishing Lata Mangeshkar a very happy 86th birth anniversary (b. 28 September 1929) with her songs for Naushad A blog would start losing its appeal if it became too predictable. Today is one such day when everyone is going to exclaim, ‘’I knew it!’ However, there is no way I can avoid it. There are […]

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Asha Bhosle with reluctant Naushad and C Ramchandra: Part 2 (duets)

Asha Bhosle with C Ramchandra and Naushad

September 18, 2015

I could not have imagined until sometime back that I would be writing two posts back to back on Asha Bhosle. But I have since become conscious of a strong Asha Bhosle Fan Club on SoY. In my last post on her songs with Naushad and C Ramchandra, we saw that even though they might […]

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Asha Bhosle with reluctant Naushad and C Ramchandra: Part 1 (solos)

September 8, 2015

Greeting her happy birthday on her 82st birth anniversary (b. 8 September 1933) Asha Bhosle’s position in the early 1950s was very unenviable. Her elder sister, Lata Mangeshkar, had debuted as a playback singer (Aap Ki Sewa Mein; 1947) only a year before her (Chunariya; 1948), but the former stormed the music scene in 1949 […]

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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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The Master of Masters Khemchand Prakash

August 10, 2015

A tribute on his 65th death anniversary (12 December 1907 – 10 August 1950) In my cryptic history of Hindi film music, as I moved from RC Boral/Pankaj Mullick to Anil Biswas to Naushad, Richard mentioned the omission of Khemchand Prakash. He was so right. Even in the most facile history he has to be […]

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