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

Best songs of year

Best songs of 1942: Wrap UP 4

Gyan Dutt-Anil Biswas-Kamal Dasgupta-Ghulam Haider

December 10, 2023

And the SOY Award for the Best Music Director of 1942 goes to? After the Overview Post, Wrap Up 1 of the best male solos, Wrap Up 2 of the best female solos and Wrap Up 3 of the best duets, it is time for the final Wrap Up 4 to discuss the best music […]

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Best songs of 1942: Wrap Up 3

Bhakt Surdas-Basant-Bharat Milap-Station Master

November 20, 2023

And the award for the best duet of 1942 goes to? 1935 to 1946 have been years of KL Saigal dominance of the film music. Yet, there is something about duets that even in these years duets leave a lasting imprint. These include some duets in which KL Saigal is the male singer, but the […]

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Best songs of 1942: Wrap Up 2

October 8, 2023

And the SOY ward for the Best Female Singer goes to? In my overview post of the best songs of 1942, I had mentioned that the ratio between male solos and female solos in the songs in which singers were credited was 1:2.55 in the year as a whole. I had included 84 songs in […]

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Best songs of 1942: Wrap Up 1

July 22, 2023

And the award for the Best Male Singer goes to? KL Saigal in most of his active years was a colossus and, thus, the answer to this rhetorical question was a foregone conclusion. In 1942, Saigal had just one film, Bhakt Surdas, but that was enough to make his songs etched in the memories of […]

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Best songs of 1942

May 8, 2023

And the winners are? As we go back more and more into vintage years there is a concern whether we would come across some familiar songs. There are indeed some undiscovered gems, but there are also many songs which have become immortal and have been part of us since the radio era. KL Saigal was […]

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Best songs of 1943: Wrap Up 4

December 11, 2022

And the Award for the Best Music Director goes to? The year 1943 was like 1944 in many respects. Kismet became a cult hit for its novel theme; it also happened to have outstanding music by Anil Biswas. Anil Biswas also gave some excellent music in Hamari Baat. Naushad didn’t have a Rattan (1944) exactly, but he gave music […]

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Best songs of 1943: Wrap Up 3

More balapan ke sathi-Dheere dheere aa re baadal

October 19, 2022

And the award for the best duet goes to? There is something about duets which make them exceptional. If you take a re-look at my Overview Post, six out of the eight ‘Special Songs’ are duets. There are just so many varieties in them. For example, the titles of Bhojan ke nazaarein hain and Main […]

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Best songs of 1943: Wrap Up 2

Amirbai Karnataki-Parul Ghosh-Khursheed-Kanan Devi

September 19, 2022

And the Award for the Best Female Solo singer goes to ? If you browse through the Wrap Up 1 regarding the best solos of 1943, it was clearly a one-horse race with KL Saigal being the Pole Star. During Saigal-Noorjehan-era there was no female Saigal, or as I have said earlier a number of […]

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Best songs of 1943: Wrap Up 1

May 26, 2022

The SOY Award for the Best Male Singer goes to? There are years when a competition becomes a one-horse race. That is the case with the best male singer for the year 1943. On the one hand we have the landmark film Tansen starring KL Saigal and Khursheed, on the other we have Kismet and […]

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Best songs of 1943: And the winners are?

April 15, 2022

If 1944 was the year of Naushad’s Jewel in the Crown, Rattan, 1943 was the year of Kismet which became a cult film on the back of its music by Anil Biswas. The Master Khemchad Prakash was at the peak of his craft, and so were KL Saigal and Khursheed in the film Tansen which […]

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