2019

Best songs of 1946: Final Wrap Up 4

Naushad-Ghulam Haider-Hansraj Bahal 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

Ravi 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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Best songs of 1946: Wrap Up 3

Aawaz de kahan hai December 6, 2019

And the SoY award for the best duet goes to? In the year-wise reviews of the best songs, as we entered pre-1949, we gradually encountered less and less familiar songs. It became quite pronounced in 1946, in which I could include only 81 MEMORABLE songs in my Overview post, which is far less than the […]

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

Ravi and 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

Ravi and 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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Best songs of 1946: Wrap Up 2

Noorjehan-Amirbai Karnataki-Shamshad Begum-Suraiya November 9, 2019

And the SoY Award for the Best Female Playback Singer goes to? As the readers would recall from Wrap Up 1, the Award for the Best Male Solo turned out to be a one-horse race, thanks to KL Saigal’s superlative songs in the film Shahjahan, composed equally superbly by the Great Mughal Naushad. Lata Mangeshkar […]

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Sachin Karta’s Last Visit to Agartala

SD Burman October 31, 2019

A tribute to SD Burman on his 44th death anniversary with guest article by Moti Lalwani  (The month of October starts with SD Burman (b. 1 October 1906 – d. 31 October 1975) and ends with him. Around the time I was thinking of writing a review of HQ Chowdhury’s ‘Incomparable Sachin Dev Burman’, Moti […]

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SD Burman: Pioneer in Composing Tune First

SD Burman October 24, 2019

Guest article by Moti Lalwani (Which comes first – the lyrics or the music – has been a recurring debate in any discussion on film music. In the continuing series on celebrating October 2019 as the month of SD Burman, Moti Lalwani writes the third guest article after his last two articles showing how Burman […]

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SD Burman: ‘The Courage of His Convictions’ (Establishes Geeta Dutt As a Frontline Singer)

SD Burman and Geeta Dutt October 16, 2019

Gust article by Moti Lalwani (We are aware that SD Burman had an uncanny ear for selecting a singer for a particular song. In this he didn’t care for the reputation of a celebrity artist, director, producer, or singer. He was the Master of Music, and he made the final choice. That is why there […]

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SD Burman: ‘The Courage of His Convictions’ (Has his way on Hemant Kumar)

SD Burman and Hemant Kumar October 8, 2019

Guest article by Moti Lalwani as a tribute to SD Burman (1 October 1906 – 31 October 1975) ‘Ye raat ye chandni phir kahaan’ by Hemant Kumar, lyricist Sahir Ludhiyanavi, composed by SD Burman (When I wrote a review of HQ Chowdhury’s book ‘Incomparable Sachin Dev Burman’ sometime back, I had mentioned that an acknowledged […]

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