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

Music Directors

Rafi’s duets by SD Burman

July 31, 2014

A tribute to Rafi on his death anniversary, July 31 If you revisit my earlier post on Rafi’s songs (solos) composed by SD Burman, along with the readers’ comments, you realise the high regard in which the music lovers hold their combination. In spite of his known fondness for Kishore Kumar, SD Burman had something […]

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The Maker of Mukesh: Anil Biswas

July 22, 2014

Continuing Anil Biswas Centenary Year celebration, a tribute to his most famous protégé, Mukesh, on his birth anniversary, July 22 And the rest is history. A worn-out cliché, but nothing describes Anil Biswas’s role in the emergence of Mukesh better. Mukesh was a struggling singer-actor in the period 1941-1945, when his brother-in-law, Motilal, took him […]

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Remembering Anil Biswas, The Singer

July 7, 2014

A tribute on Anil Biswas’s Birth Centenary (b. 7 July 1914; d. 31 May 2003) Songs of Yore heralded 2014 as the Year of Anil Biswas with Inaugural post by his daughter, Shikha Biswas Vohra – Anil Biswas: The Maestro and My Father. We have since had three more posts dedicated to him with his […]

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Suraiya’s songs by SD Burman

June 15, 2014

A tribute on her 85th birth anniversary, June 15 SD Burman getting into Navketan camp and Suraiya’s intense romance with Dev Anand meant that there would be a number of songs of this singer (and actor)-composer pair. Since SD Burman made his debut late, his songs for Suraiya are much less compared to, say, Naushad’s, […]

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The incredible brother-sister in music: Anil Biswas’s songs for Parul Ghosh

May 27, 2014

Continuing Anil Biswas Centenary Year celebration with his songs for Parul Ghosh as a tribute to her I can’t think of a weightier brother sister-duo in Hindi film music. Obviously, Mangeshkars’ dominance is unparalleled, but they are primarily ‘sisters’; Hridaynath’s footprint is very negligible on film music, whereas Anil Biswas is a Titan. Parul Ghosh […]

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Multiple Version Songs (16): Rabindra Sangeet and Pankaj Mullick

May 7, 2014

Hridaya Pankaje Rabi Viraje A tribute to Gurudev Rabindranath Thakur (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) and Pankaj Mullick (10 May 1905 – 19 February 1978) by guest author N Venkataraman (The appeal of Rabindranath Thakur’s poetry and songs of love, nature and worship transcends the boundaries of language and culture. Pankaj Mullick, one […]

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East meets West: Shamshad Begum’s songs by SD Burman

April 23, 2014

A tribute on Shamshad Begum’s first death anniversary April 23 As the ethnic stereotypes go, no two people can be further apart from each other than a Bengali and a Punjabi. SD Burman and Shamshad Begum were the leading lights of the two extremes – East Bengal and the West Punjab, yet when they combined they […]

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Talat Mahmood’s songs by SD Burman

March 6, 2014

My last post on Talat Mahmood’s songs by Anil Biswas reminded me that last year when I had ‘closed’ my series on SD Burman, Venkatarmanji and some other readers mentioned some more singers who gave memorable songs with Dada. Talat Mahmood was one of the names mentioned. They fit in very nicely. SD Burman was […]

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The Mentor and the Protégé: Talat Mahmood songs by Anil Biswas

February 24, 2014

A tribute to Talat Mahmood on his 90th birth anniversary Anil Biswas was not the first composer for whom Talat Mahmood sang in films. He debuted as an actor-singer in Calcutta in Raj Laxmi (1945). While in Calcutta, he also sang (and acted) in Tum Aur Main (1947), Samapti and Swayansiddha (1949). During this period […]

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Door Papiha Bola: Suraiya by Anil Biswas

January 31, 2014

A tribute to Anil Biswas in his centenary year and to Suraiya on her 10th death anniversary For many years after getting deeply attached to the vintage songs, I regarded Anil Biswas as peripheral to the music career of Suraiya. When I thought of Suraiya, the composers who came to mind most prominently were Naushad, […]

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