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

Naushad

Naushad’s “The Singing Girl Next Door”: Suraiya

June 15, 2015

A tribute on her 86th birth anniversary (15 June 1929 – 31 January 2004) Our last singing star, Suraiya, attained incredible heights of popularity bordering on mass hysteria. She started her singing career, as a child artiste, with Naushad; subsequently, she sang playback for Mehtab in a few films; she graduated as an actor-singer and […]

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Raju Bharatan’s ‘Naushadnama’

May 5, 2015

Book Review as a tribute to Naushad on his 9th death anniversary (25 December 1919-5 May 2006) Naushadnama By Raju Bharatan Hay House India (2013) pp. 341 The most important thing about Raju Bharatan’s Naushadnama is that it is Raju Bharatan’s Naushadnama. Which means, if you are familiar with his […]

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Shamshad Begum songs by Naushad

April 14, 2015

A tribute to Shamshad Begum on her 96th birth anniversary (14 April 1919 – 23 April 2013) In my mind the best of Shamshad Begum always meant Naushad. I would be surprised if any of her famous songs, which I would automatically attribute to him, turned out to be composed by a different music director. […]

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Tennis, Pathakji and ‘Tere sadke balam’

March 22, 2015

That I am an inveterate fan of Lata Mangeshkar is nothing exceptional. She was ‘the’ female playback voice of the Golden Era. Now the readers are aware I am fascinated even more by Naushad. Therefore, I took it for granted that I have already written on Lata Mangeshkar’s best songs by Naushad, as I have […]

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Naushad-C Ramchandra duel for Amirbai Karnataki

March 15, 2015

A tribute on the 50th death anniversary of Amirbai Karnataki (c.1906 – 3 March 1965) (As her death anniversary was too close to my scheduled post on Holi songs, I am posting my tribute to Amirbai Karnataki, with her songs by Naushad and C Ramchandra, with some lag.) Which is the most popular Amirbai Karnataki […]

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Talat Mahmood by Naushad and C Ramchandra

February 24, 2015

A tribute to Talat Mahmood on his 91st birth anniversary (24 February 1924 – 9 May 1998) There was every reason for Talat Mahmood to have a long innings with Naushad. Both coming from Lucknow, they represented a similar Urdu sensibility and cultural milieu. Talat’s entry into Bombay Hindi film music was spectacular with Ae […]

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The Jewel in the Crown of Naushad: ‘Rattan’ (1944)

January 1, 2015

SoY celebrates 2015 as the Year of Naushad in the 75th Anniversary Year of his debut If I were to write the history of Hindi film music, it would go as follows. Once upon a time there were RC Boral and Pankaj Mullick. Then came Anil Biswas. He was followed by Naushad, who in a […]

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Best songs of 1955: Final Wrap Up 4

December 25, 2012

The SoY award for the best Music Director goes to? This is like completing the circle, which means you come to the same point from where you started. So I look back at the mother post on the overview of the best songs of 1955 and I am amazed at the overwhelming response it generated, […]

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Naushad’s best songs for Mohammad Rafi

December 24, 2011

Double tribute on their birth anniversaries Mohammad Rafi’s birth anniversary falls on December 24 (b 1924) and Naushad’s on December 25 (b 1919). This close proximity also extended to their music. Rafi was to playback singing what Naushad was to music composing – both at the commanding heights of their profession for over two […]

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Remembering Mughal-e-Azam’s Music

August 22, 2010

Travesty of missing the Filmfare award This is the Golden Jubilee year of Mughal-e-Azam (1960), and the media, both print and electronic, is rightly full of the movie. Everything about the film was superlative – its lavish production, awesome battle scenes with thousands of camels, horses and soldiers (there were no computer generated imaging those […]

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