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

Music Directors

Hemant Kumar’s Female Playback Singers

August 27, 2020

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav in the series of centenary tributes to Hemant Kumar (b. 16 June 2020 – d. 26 September 1989) (Is Hemant Kumar a major singer or a music director? For his fans his mesmerising singing overshadows his contribution as a music director. Ashok M Vaishnav is known for going deep […]

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Remembering Ajit Merchant

August 15, 2020

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav as a tribute to Ajit Merchant on his 95th birth anniversary (b. 15 August 1925 – d. 28 March 2011) (Talents from various regional languages have enriched Hindi film music. Music directors and singers from Bengal have occupied a central place in Hindi film music. From the recent generation […]

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Chitragupta’s duets for Rafi: Melody Personified

July 31, 2020

A tribute to Rafi (24 December 1924 – 31 July 1980) on his 40th Remembrance Day Today is the 40th Remembrance Day of Rafi. He was the most versatile playback singer of the Golden Era of film music and, more importantly, he was universally known as a good human being, without malice to anyone, and […]

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Madan Mohan: The Pied Piper of Bollywood in Different Moods

July 14, 2020

Guest article by DP Rangan as a tribute to Madan Mohan on his 45th Remembrance Day (b. 25 June 1924 – d. 14 July 1975) (Two years ago to this day, DP Rangan wrote a tandem article on Roshan and Madan Mohan about their classical songs, with annotation by Subodh Agrawal, which set the stage […]

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Hemantayan – Part 1

June 16, 2020

A tribute to Hemant Kumar on his Birth Centenary (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989) by guest author N Venkataraman (Lata Mangeshkar once said in an interview about Hemant Kumar, “Listening to Hemant Da, I feel as though a sadhu sitting in a temple is singing a bhajan.” But a more endearing observation was […]

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“Guide, The Film: Perspectives”

April 14, 2020

Book Review Guide, The Film: Perspectives Lata Jagtiani & Other Writers Blue Pencil, New Delhi, 2019 ISBN: 978-81-939555-2-9 An unintended blessing of Corona-enforced lockdown, I thought, was that I would be able to finish some half-read books and watch and rewatch some of my favourite films. With this thought I resumed ‘Guide, The Film: Perspectives’ which […]

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Best songs of 1946: Final Wrap Up 4

December 25, 2019

And the SoY Award for the Best Music Director goes to? Wishing Merry Christmas to the readers and a tribute to Naushad on his Birth Centenary (25 December 1919 – 5 May 2006) I need not have put a question mark about the best music director of 1946. Rarely one comes across such a single-horse […]

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Ravi’s many-splendoured genius with the ‘other’ singers

December 15, 2019

We now come to the end of the series on Ravi. In my opening post in the series we saw him as a many-splendoured genius with a large number of songs for themes and occasions, which have acquired an iconic status, many of which made the readers exclaim, Oh, this is also composed by him! […]

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Ravi’s ‘other’ female playback singer: Lata Mangeshkar

November 28, 2019

Another tribute to Lata Mangeshkar on her turning 90 (b. 28 September 1929) Lata Mangeshkar turned ninety two months ago to this day. On this special day Shalan Lal wrote a comprehensive article on her, analysing the ‘conditions’ that made the Lata Mangeshkar-phenomenon possible, while acknowledging that there was something divine about her voice, something […]

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Ravi: Booster rocket for Mahendra Kapoor

November 18, 2019

In my earlier posts on Mahendra Kapoor I have described him as the most ‘unloved’ singer. The general impression is that his entry into films started with his winning the ‘All India Murphy Metro Singing Contest’ in 1957 for which the judges were Anil Biswas, Naushad, C Ramchandra, Vasant Desai and Madan Mohan. One of […]

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