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

Jhoola, Holi, Durga Puja, Diwali, Janmashtami etc.

Krishna and Flute

September 6, 2023

Wishing everyone a very Happy Janmashtami with best songs on Krishna and the flute Thanks to several TV serials, Amar Chitra Katha mythology comics, and other sources everyone knows Lord Krishna story by heart. The cruel King Kans marries off his dear sister Devki to his close friend Vasudev (वसुदेव), and decides to drive them […]

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Kleptomania in Bollywood

March 8, 2023

Wishing the readers and their families a very Happy Holi and International Women’s Day We are all aware of the drug problem in Bollywood, thanks to the media which went into frenzy at some NCB raids at rave parties and the homes of some celebrities. There was a lot of moralising about the decadent lifestyle […]

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Impossible Songs

March 18, 2022

Wishing the readers a very Happy Holi The regular readers of SOY are aware that on Holi, when everyone is out throwing coloured water on each other, I often reflect on some serious issues. Not on things like “What is the Ultimate Reality”, or the nature of Brahma (ब्रह्म) and Jeev (जीव) – Are they […]

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Songs of women for the women by the women

November 10, 2021

Wishing the readers a very Happy Chhath festival My fellow bloggers Madhu and Anu are apt to say, no sooner do you put two women together in our films than they start singing. There must be something about women and singing – female solos outnumber male solos by more than three times, and female duets […]

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Jogi, Bhogi or Dhongi

March 29, 2021

Wishing the readers and their families a very Happy Holi Colloquial equivalents of Sanskrit terms usually retain their exact meaning, such as singaar for shringaar, barkha for varsha etc. But did you give a thought how in case of jogi, which is the Hindi equivalent of yogi, the connotation changes so drastically? As regards yogi, […]

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Barahmasa in film songs

March 21, 2019

Wishing a very Happy Holi to all the readers When the first monsoon rains quench the thirst of the parched earth, and dry rivulets, water bodies and ponds get filled with water, and green shoots emerge from dry plants and trees, and the farmers rush to the slushy fields for transplantation, it’s a time for […]

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Swing a song of sixpence

January 1, 2019

Swing into the New Year with guest article by Ashwin Bhandarkar (A promise made is a debt unpaid. When Ashwin Bhandarkar wrote his first guest article on 6 May 2017, titled Beena madhur madhur kachhu bol, I had indicated he would be writing more articles for SoY. Here he makes good his promise, and I […]

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Parody songs: Part 1

March 2, 2018

Wishing the readers a very Happy Holi (I have been compiling parody songs for a while, when I got a mail from Ashok M Vaishnav that he has also been doing such a list, and whether he could write a guest article for SoY on this. No one does compilation and analysis better than him, […]

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Nuptials in Bollywood

January 14, 2018

Guest article by DP Rangan (With Makar Sankranti and Pongal, as the month-long ‘inauspicious period’ comes to an end and the wedding season is set to resume with full vigour, our indefatigablete DP Rangan comes up with a very nicely-timed post on nuptial songs from our films. In his characteristic style, Mr Rangan packs in a […]

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“Whose father’s what goes?”

March 13, 2017

Wishing the readers a very Happy Holi with some songs of brazenness Once a casual acquaintance, but who had a way of showing great familiarity, visited me. He started discussing something very animatedly, every second sentence he would look at me intently and ask, “Whose father’s what goes? Isn’t it?” I didn’t know what to […]

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