2013

Best songs of 1953: Final Wrap Up 4

Shankar Jaikishan_C Ramchandra_Ghulam Mohammad_Anil Biswas_Salil Chaudhary December 21, 2013

The Songs of Yore Award for the Best Music Director goes to? Canasya asked in one of the posts in this series, what was the avowed objective of these posts? Jignesh mentioned that SoY Awards have surpassed the fame of Filmfare Awards (I like that ).  Filmfare is indeed a reference point, because this series […]

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Multiple Version Songs (15): In the ‘Realm of Remakes’ – Hindi to Tamil

Wo Kau Thi_Yaar Nee December 10, 2013

Guest article by N Venkataraman (In my introduction to Venkataramanji’s last article, I had traced how he had originally planned to write three articles on Tamil-Hindi version songs, which he later decided to expand to five. This is his fourth, which looks at similar songs from Tamil films remade from Hindi films. Its converse, i.e. […]

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Sudha Malhotra: The last of the niche singers of the Golden Era

Sudha Malhotra November 30, 2013

Wishing her a very happy 77th birth anniversary A female playback singer in the 1950s and 60s, if she did not bear the name Lata Mangeshkar or Asha Bhosle, was in a very unenviable position. She knew she had to remain consigned to the outer orbit. The world of male playback singers was a complete […]

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KC Dey’s songs in ‘Devdas’ (1935)

KC Dey in Devdas November 20, 2013

You need not rub your eyes; this post is indeed about KC Dey’s songs in Devdas (1935). I know that this movie is synonymous with KL Saigal and his eternal songs – Balam aye baso more man mein, Dukh ke ab din beetat naahi and his rendering of Abdul Karim Khan’s thumri, Piya bin nahi […]

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The ultimate SD Burman: His pure Bengali songs

SD Burman November 10, 2013

In the radio era, when the faintest strains of Sun mere bandhu re or O re majhi mere sajan hain us paar fell into my ears from a distant radio, I would be inexorably drawn towards it, as if pulled by a magnet. SD Burman’s either of these two songs would tower over twenty other […]

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Remembering SD Burman’s Manna Dey

SD Burman and Manna Dey October 31, 2013

Mera sab kuchh mere geet re sang Manna Dey for SD Burman in Zindagi Zindagi. In a sad coincidence, in the midst of my SD Burman series, Manna Dey passed away exactly a week ago at the age of 94 (b. 1 May 1919, d. 24 Oct 2013). Today happens to be SD Burman’s death […]

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SD Burman’s Bengali songs and their Hindi versions

SD Burman October 22, 2013

Multiple Version Songs (14) With this post my SD Burman journey is intersecting Ashok Vaishnavji’s mega-project on multiple version songs. My journey has taken many interesting turns. I started with the idea of doing a post on my top ten favourite songs of SD Burman, which would have included his film as well non-film Hindi […]

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Kishore Kumar’s best songs by SD Burman

SD Burman and Kishore Kumar October 13, 2013

It is widely reported that SD Burman had a special fondness for Kishore Kumar. In my earlier posts some statistics has also been discussed regarding SD Burman’s number of songs with different singers. Kishore Kumar has more than any other male singer – beating his nearest rival Rafi by 53 solos to 46 (115 to […]

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Best songs of 1953: Wrap Up 3

Best duets of 1953 October 6, 2013

  Songs of Yore Award for the best duet goes to? After the survey post on the best songs of 1953, I have already done Wrap Up 1 on the best male solos and Wrap Up 2 on the best female solos. Continuing the series I present the third Wrap Up on the best duets. […]

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Lata Mangeshkar’s best songs by SD Burman

SD Burman and Lata Mangeshkar September 28, 2013

Wishing Lata Mangeshkar Happy 84th Birthday The most discussed aspect about SD Burman-Lata Mangeshkar combination is their break up for about five years, 1958-62, rather than their music. In that, he is among a long line of film and music personalities with whom she had one of her famous run-ins. But there is a vital […]

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