Music Directors

Vasant Desai Part 3 (post-50s): His best songs for Lata Mangeshkar

Vasant Desai-Lata Mangeshkar September 28, 2022

Continuing the series on Vasant Desai, his best songs for Lata Mangeshkar as a tribute to her on her 93rd birthday (28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022) Lata Mangeshkar would have been 93 today. This is her first birthday after she left this mortal world and this calls for a tribute to her. Coincidentally […]

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Khayyam at the Mountain Peak (2): Songs sans Pahadi

Khayyam September 8, 2022

Second part of my two-part tribute to Khayyam (18.2.1927–19.8.2019) on his third Remembrance Day Once the omission of Khayyam was brought to my notice by a reader, I realised any tribute to him could not be limited to one part. One can divide his work by the period, or by the singers, both are sensible […]

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Khayyam at the Mountain Peak (1): Songs on Pahadi

Khayyam August 19, 2022

A tribute to Khayyam (18.2.1927–19.8.2019) on his third Remembrance Day A reader mentioned some time ago that Khayyam has not been covered on SOY. Then I realised that the only post I have included under his name in the side-roll is devoted to his wife, Jagjit Kaur who sang most of her songs under his […]

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Vasant Desai Part 2 (post-1950s): His male singers

Vasant Desai July 10, 2022

In Vasant Desai Part 1 pertaining to the vintage years (1930s and 40s), we were introduced to his multifaceted talents, including his acting and singing. As per N Venkataraman he had sung a total of 37 songs in Hindi and Marathi. We all agreed that he was an outstanding singer, but surprisingly his singing career […]

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Vasant Desai Part 1: A Multifaceted Talent

Vasant Desai May 14, 2022

If a new visitor looks up Songs Of Yore, she would notice some names conspicuously missing in the right-hand scroll of music directors. There is no design in it, it has just happened. Yet I have to thank our regular reader Shachindra Prasad for drawing my attention to the omission of Vasant Desai so far […]

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Book Review: “The Unforgettable Music of HEMANT KUMAR”

Hemant Kumar March 31, 2022

The Unforgettable Music of HEMANT KUMAR By Manek Premchand Pages: 441 First Edition: 2020 Blue Pencil, New Delhi (With study of his Bengali repertoire by Antara Nanda Mondal and Sounak Gupta) Salil Chowdhury once said if God wanted to sing, he would do it in the voice of Hemant Kumar. Lata Mangeshkar said about him, […]

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हेतुहेतुमद्भूत songs

Koi hota jisko apna March 4, 2022

If you have not studied Hindi in school or forgotten your grammar, the word hetu-hetu-mad-bhoot would leave you quite flummoxed. SOY readers are from different linguistic backgrounds, and I don’t intend to write a primer on Hindi grammar. The only reason I am writing on this unusual topic is that this word came in for […]

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Rajendra Krishna with Chitragupta and Ravi: Reaching for the skies

Rajendra Krishna with Chitragupta and Ravi November 29, 2021

Guest article by Hans Jakhar in continuation of his series on Rajendra Krishna (When some readers observed that the lyricists have not been give their due importance on SOY, Hans Jakhar offered to write a series of articles on Rajendra Krishna’s combination with different music directors. He has already written two articles in the series […]

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The out of sight genius Hansraj Behl

Hansraj Behl November 19, 2021

A tribute to the great Master Hansraj Behl (19 November 1916 – 20 May 1984) on his 105th birth anniversary A fellow-blogger and SOY regular, Anup (Mehfil Mein Meri), has written an exhaustive series on Lata Mangeshkar’s songs for relatively unknown composers. He did a very sincere job, but some of us were taken aback […]

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Best songs of 1944: Final Wrap Up 4

Khemchand Prakash-Naushad-Pankaj Mullick October 30, 2021

And the Award for the Best Music Director goes to? When you think of the year 1944, you think of Naushad. That was the beginning of Naushad phenomenon with his Jewel in the crown, Rattan. This was his 13th movie, having debuted in 1940 as an independent music director, he already had five Silver Jubilees […]

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