Guest Authors

In Memoriam: Suman Kalyanpur, an epitome of talent, grace and dignity

Guest article by Dr Rajesh Deshpande as a tribute to one of the last of doyens of playback singing of the Golden Era

(When Suman Kalyanpur passed away recently, I suddenly felt that with her one of the last links with the Golden Era of playback singing is gone. She was a tragic figure, the similarity of her voice with Lata Mangeshkar was both a curse and boon for her. Curse, because when original was available, why go for a duplicate! And boon, because when the mighty Mangeshkar had her famous spats with all and sundry because of her own hubris, Suman Kalyanpur got a chance to sing some exquisite songs. I thought SOY had to write a tribute on her. I did not have the same urge when Asha Bhosle passed away a couple of months earlier, because she had created her own niche, and there were a good number of articles on her on SOY thanks to some of her inveterate fans.

I realised Suman Kalyanpur enjoyed tremendous respect in Marathi music, and some Marathi knowing person can do proper justice to her. I am happy to say that Dr Deshpande accepted my request to write a guest article on her. Her work is so vast that it was not possible to fit into one article. He proposes to write two articles, one on solos and the other on duets.

As the SOY readers are aware, Dr Deshpande is a pathologist by profession and works in a healthcare MNC, based out of Bombay. Thank you Dr Deshpane for a superb article on Suman Kalyanpur. – AK)

Within two months of the passing away of Asha Bhosle, we lost another illustrious singer who mesmerised us with her golden voice since the 50s. Suman Kalyanpur, the last pillar of the golden era of Hindi film music left for heavenly abode on May 31, 2026 at the age of 89 due to age-related ailments.

Looks like Sundays have been bringing us the sad news as all the 3 queens of melody (Lata, Asha and Suman) passed away on a Sunday. A singer par excellence, Suman Kalyanpur’s career began in 1954, peaked in the 60s and she retired in 80s, having sung in Hindi, Marathi and other regional languages.

She was born as Suman Hemmady on 28 January 1937 in Kolkata. The family moved to Dhaka and then to Mumbai, where they finally settled. Besides music, she was also interested in painting and got admission in the Sir J. J. School of Arts for higher studies. She received primary training in music from family friend and composer Keshavrao Bhole. She later took professional training from Navrang Nagpurkar and Ustad Abdul Rehman Khan. She got an opportunity to sing for a Marathi film Shukrachi Chandani, which unfortunately got shelved. However, composer Mohammad Shafi had heard her singing during the recording and offered her songs for the film Mangu (1954). Her first release was Darwaza. She also sang a few lines uncredited for the film version of the song Mohabbat kar lo jee bhar lo of Aar Paar under OP Nayyar.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Love is Bliss

Wishing everyone a very Happy Valentine’s Day with guest article by DP Rangan

(Our mid-octogenarian guest author today is an ever romantic. PG Wodehouse, Agatha Christie, Cricket, Bridge, Sherlock Holmes, History, Mathematics – his range of interests is limitless. An eternal peripatetic, he drops in India for change of his laundry, or medicines, during Spring when love is in the air. He is about to come back from US/Canada next month for a short visit to Delhi when the weather is conducive here. This is the time when Mr Rangan thought of resuming his writing for Songs Of Yore. “Love is Bliss” is the result of that yearning. He has written a trilogy of love articles for the blog a few years back. Mr Rangan explains how this one is distinct from his earlier love articles. It is my pleasure to welcome him.

Thank you Mr Rangan for this excellent offering. For newcomers, Mr Rangan is a retired senior government official. – AK)

Love between male and female of a species has been in vogue since many aeons with the aim of creating progenies for survival of next generation and beyond. It is a fundamental axiom of life for perpetuation. Birds are a classic example of love dances with gay abandon. Human beings are no less accomplished.

I had already contributed three posts on the theme. I consider it an over simplification to confine them into rigid patterns. It can be interpreted in various ways. I am exploring this aspect and am aiming to inflict another post on the site by coaxing our blog master. But that is far into the future.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

OP Nayyar: The Composer Par Excellence

Guest article by Ravindra Kelkar as a tribute to OP Nayyar on his Centenary (16 January 1926 – 28 January 2007) (We have now reached the concluding post of the guest author in the series of tributes to OP Nayyar, coinciding with his centenary. OP Nayyar was one of the most complex personalities of HindiREAD THE FULL ARTICLE

OP Nayyar’s favourite instruments and his orchestration

Guest article by Ravindra Kelkar in the series of Centenar Celebrations of OP Nayyar (b. 16 January 1926 – d. 28 January 2007)

(Ravindra Kelkar is a well-known OP Nayyar-fan. The grand centenary celebration of Rafi on SOY inspired him to mount a similar centenary celebration for OP Nayyar. Ashok Vaishnav’s articles on RD Burman’s orchestration inspired him to write this exclusive post on OP Nayyar’s unique orchestration. Not every music director developed a signature style of orchestration. You could identify his songs from afar.

I am a reluctant and late admirer of OP Nayyar. Reluctant, because of his complete exclusion of Lata Mangeshkar. Late, because I started noticing his Rafi songs in a new light. Not only solos, duets too, in which Rafi started the song. They were out of this word, and I had no hesitation in putting him among the top five composers for Rafi. But this piece is quite an eye-opener, and makes you look at OP Nayyar’s famous songs with new insight.

Ravindra Kelkar has a double Master’s degree in Statistics and Computer Science. He has been an IT professional. Now retired, he is based out of Pune. I have to thank Mr. Kelkar for an excellent and comprehensive article on OP Nayyar’s unique orchestration. This is going to be his penultimate article in OP Nayyar’s centenary celebrations. This is also the last article in the year 2025. Therefore, I have to also wish a Merry Christmas and Season’s Greetings to all, and enjoy your vacation. – AK)

This year, so far we have four posts published on the SOY blog about RD Burman’s orchestration. All by Mr. Ashok Vaishnav with so much depth that I felt inspired to attempt to write a post of similar nature on OP Nayyar. RD Burman belonged to the next crop of MDs after the golden period of Hindi Film Music. Roughly speaking, I consider the years from 1950 to 1970 as the golden period. For me, the golden period ended with the advent of Kishore Kumar from Aradhana and emergence of RD Burman-Asha combination and subsequent decline in the premier position held by Lata and Rafi.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

OP Nayyar’s Non-Film Songs

Guest article by Ravindra Kelkar continuing the series on OP Nayyar’s centenary celebrations (b. 16 January 1926 – d. 28 January 2007)

(Seeing the grand centenary celebration of Rafi on SOY in 2024, a known OP Nayyar fan Ravindra Kelkar proposed to celebrate his centenary, too, appropriately. Coincidentally, his centenary was still a few months away (b. 16 January 1926 – d. 28 January 2007), so I readily agreed. He had already contributed a series of articles on him a few years ago, but he offered to write fresh articles in the present series also. He has already contributed two articles in 2025. This is his third article in OP Nayar’s centenary celebrations.

We all know that the celebrated song ‘Preetam aan milo’ was first recorded as an NFS in the voice of CH Atma, composed by OP Nayyar many years before he debuted in film music. However, Mr Kelkar shows that OP Nayyar composed several non-film songs of incredible beauty, worthy of an independent post. Thank you Mr Kelkar for another excellent article in the series.

As I have mentioned earlier, Mr Kelkar has done Masters in Statistics and Computer Science. Now retired, he is based out of Pune. – AK)      

Before getting into the topic, I would like to share my views about proliferation of YouTube channels related to Hindi Film Music World in the last five or so years. Increasingly, I have seen a trend to come up with content based upon imagination and having no concrete basis. I will quote here a few examples.

1. OP-Rafi break up happened when ‘Dil ki awaz bhi sun’ was to be recorded for the film ‘Humsaya’. After this, Rafi prevailed upon OP to record the song so that the producer Joy Mukherjee does not suffer financial loss. The YouTuber has ensured that all persons involved in the episode are dead.

2. ‘Savere ka suraj’ from ‘EK Baar Muskura Do’ was dubbed by Kishore Kumar and later on it was to be re-recorded in the Rafi’s voice. Again, pure fictional story with no possibility of verification.

3. During the recording of ‘Main pyar ka rahi hoon’ from ‘EK Musafir Ek Haseena’, the rhythm section went on strike and OP still went ahead and recorded the song without them.

4. There are a few more such fictional stories, the best I came across was about the song ‘Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya’ from the film ‘Hum Dono’. The YouTuber claimed that it was SD Burman’s tune and SD Burman asked his son RD Burman to go to Jaidev and give this tune to him.

Amazing, isn’t it? If anybody asks me about these stories, my standard answer is that I am waiting for the development of ‘Time Machine’. Once it is available, I will travel back in time and verify and then conclude. I feel we need to use our judgment so that we don’t get misled by such stories.

Now let’s come to the subject of the post.

As the title indicates, in this write-up, we will go through OP’s selected non-film songs.  OP composed 41 non-film Hindi songs. This is a good number. In comparison, SD Burman has 25 and Hemant Kumar has around 35 non-film Hindi songs, though both of them have composed more than 100 non-film Bengali songs. Two other Hindi Film music directors who have composed a fair number of non-film Hindi songs are Khayyam and Jaidev. Though I don’t know the exact number, I like their non-film songs. I think, Pt. Hridaynath Mangeshkar has composed a few non-film Hindi songs, the most famous being ‘Nis din barasat nain hamare’ sung by his sister Lata Mangeshkar. About other major MDs, I have no idea whether they have composed non-film Hindi songs. (Kamal Dasgupta is a very prominent name in NFS. Some of his compositions in the voice of Jagmohan and Talat Mahmood have acquired iconic status. – AK)READ THE FULL ARTICLE

R D Burman and His Orchestration Improvisations: Vocal Experiments

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav

(We are celebrating 2025 as the year of RD Burman. He was acknowledged for his improvisations in sounds. Our guest author Ashok M Vaishnav has already covered his instrumental improvisations in percussion, string and blow (or wind) instruments. An important part of RD Burman’s orchestral improvisations was his novel vocal experiments. Ashok ji explains that these usages were different from the widely used chorus accompaniments by the Golden or Vintage Era music directors like Anil Biswas, Naushad, Salil Chowdhury and Shankar-Jaikishan. These do not refer to RD Burman’s gruff, baritone voice either, putting in words like “Monica, My Darling!”.

This would be the fourth and the last article by Ashok ji in the present series. He has been a regular contributor to SOY. Earlier he had anchored a series on Arrangers and Musicians. Thus, he was eminently suitable for writing this series on RD Burman. Ashok ji is a retired engineer based out of Ahmedabad and is now a freelance management trainer. Thank you, Ashok ji, for this excellent article as your concluding piece in this series on RD Burman’s orchestral improvisations. – AK)

While working for the present series, I observed that R D Burman has extensively used sonic effects of vocals in the orchestration of the music. These vocal usages were different than the very widely used chorus accompaniments that Anil Biswas, Salil Chowdhury, Shankar Jaikishan and other music directors of late 40s and 50 have so extensively and innovatively used in their work.

This is also not about what we now recognised as his ‘signature’ – gruff, baritone – singing style or heavy breath sounds of Mera naam hai Shabnam (Kati Patang, 1970) or Monica or Monica My Darling in Piya tu ab to aa ja (Caravan, 1971) or singing Mere Jivan Saathi, with varying modulations or other lyrical dialogues or odd sounds  in the titles of Mere Jivan Sathi (1972).READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The trio that changed the Hindi film music scene – RD Burman, Kishore Kumar and Rajesh Khanna

Guest article by Dr Rajesh Deshpande in the continuing series on RD Burman, with his songs for Rajesh Khanna on Kishore Kumar’s 38th Remembrance Day (4 August 1929 – 13 October 1987)

(The single most important factor for RD Burman’s fame is his songs for Kishore Kumar lip-synched by Rajesh Khanna on the screen. Therefore, when I started discussing with Dr Deshpande on the themes, we agreed on this date for the combination. But what the man proposes, God disposes. As the day came nearer, I had a scheduled travel from 8th-13th October, and as such, 7th October was a very busy day for me. Therefore, I wanted the article to be in by the 5th October. Dr Deshpande had sudden work-related travel and the vagaries of air travel meant he could touch base on the 7th and he had to catch up with meetings and work. Thus, the most important article in the series of tributes to RD Burman would have almost missed the scheduled date.

As his flight was to land, he must have seen my reminder, and in the course of the day, I kept pursuing him. Without showing any signs of annoyance, he sent the article 7th night, giving me barely sometime to work on it. It is to the credit of Dr Deshpande that in spite of the last-minute scramble, he has not let the quality of the write-up go down. Thank you, Dr Deshpande, for another excellent article.

 Dr Deshpande is a pathologist with blood transfusion as his speciality. He is currently in-charge of Medical Affairs for Asia Pacific and International Region in Fresenius Kabi, a healthcare MNC. Dr Deshpande is based out of Mumbai. – AK)

No series of tributes to RD Burman can be complete without covering his main male playback singer – Kishore Kumar. RDB-KK had forged a musical and emotional bond and an association that went way beyond the usual music composer-singer collaboration. The rise of RD Burman and the resurrection of Kishore Kumar as playback singer also coincided with the superstardom of Rajesh Khanna. It would not be incorrect to say that both the composer and the singer had a major contribution in the creation of the phenomenon called Rajesh Khanna (RK). RK brought the romantic and soulful melodies of RDB-KK alive on screen, so much so that he came to be known as the eternal romantic hero. On the occasion of Kishore Kumar’s 38th Remembrance Day (13th October), it would be a fitting tribute to discuss his songs composed by RD Burman and picturised on Rajesh Khanna. Along with RD Burman, this is also a tribute to the superstar, born as Jatin Khanna (b.29 December 1942 – d.18 July 2012).READ THE FULL ARTICLE

R D Burman and His Orchestration Improvisations: Blow Instruments

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav

(When I mentioned that I would need help from our guest authors from the SOY-community to dedicate the year of 2025 to RD Burman in a befitting manner, Ashok M Vaishnav offered to write a few articles on instrumental improvisations by RD Burman. He has already anchored a series on Arrangers and Musicians on SOY. Having written on percussion and string instruments in the series, Ashok ji writes on the third major group of instruments: wind or blow instruments, with focus on Manohari Singh.

Ashok ji is a retired mechanical engineer, and now a freelance consultant, based out of Ahmedabad. Thank you Ashok ji for another nice article in the series of tributes to RD Burman. – AK)

The three assistants who played key role in arranging the music for R D Burman were masters of three different instruments – Maruti (Rao Keer) was a percussionist, Basu (Chakraborty) was a cellist and Manohari (Singh) was an ace blow instrumentalist. It would be too presumptuous to judge that these instruments seemed to find major space in R D Burman’s music because of these three artists. In fact, as one scans through the spectrum of R D Burman’s music, quite a wide variety of instruments can be heard, many of them used quite innovatively as well. As I worked for the third article in the present series of R D Burman and His Orchestration Improvisations, with the abundance of material available on the internet, I have observed the presence of a wide range of instruments in the orchestration.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

A Musical Association: RD Burman and The Kapoors

Guest article by Dr Rajesh Deshpande

(During our discussions about possible themes in RD Burman series, Dr Rajesh Deshpande made an obvious (!) mention of RDB-RK. I was taken aback that no one would associate Raj Kapoor with RD Burman. Dr Deshpande clarified he had in mind Rajesh Khanna! But our cross-understanding led to discussing the Kapoors further and he had a quick thinking that RD Burman had worked with several from the House of Kapoors. This post is the result of our comical misunderstanding. Now the other RK whom Dr Deshpande had in mind would come later.

The SOY regulars are aware how the series on RD Burman came about. Knowing my limitations I said I would need help from others. Dr Deshpande agreed to contribute some articles. This is his second article in the series.

By profession, Dr Deshpande is a pathologist with blood transfusion as his speciality. He is currently in-charge of Medical Affairs for Asia Pacific and International Region in Fresenius Kabi, a healthcare MNC. Dr Deshpande is based out of Mumbai. He is deeply into film music. He is a regular contributor to HFGK and works closely with Har Mandir Singh ‘Hamraj’. Thanks to him, I am also now aware that many on this forum are big fans of RD Burman. Dr Deshpande has done an excellent survey article on this theme. Thank you Dr Deshpande for your second nice article. – AK)

When we think of the actors on whom some of the famous songs of RD Burman have been picturised, Rajesh Khanna’s name comes foremost to the mind, followed by Dev Anand, Sanjeev Kumar, Mehmood, Randhir Kapoor, Sanjay, Rishi Kapoor, Tariq etc. And of course, Shammi Kapoor, the hero of the first successful RDB film, Teesri Manzil.

I realised that two generations of Kapoors (from Prithviraj Kapoor family) have lip-synched to many RDB composed numbers. There are many known and popular films and numerous memorable RDB songs featuring the Kapoors: Raj-Shammi-Shashi as well as Randhir-Rishi-Rajiv.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The musical revolution: RD Burman and the 70s

Guest article by Dr Rajesh Deshpande continuing the series on tributes to RD Burman

(When I embarked upon celebrating 2025 as the year of RD Burman, I was aware of my limitations. The blog’s focus area was 1930s through 60s, whereas RD Burman was clearly a man of the 1970s onwards. I was deeply into the music of the earlier era, and couldn’t relate much to the later period. In other words, I didn’t know much about the music of the post-1970s. It was quite clear that I would need help from the readers more au fait with music of the 1970s. Dr Deshpande’s name came to my mind who is very up-to-date with RD Burman’s music. I was happy when he responded positively to my request whether he would be interested in writing a couple of articles on him. With this article he is debuting as one of the distinguished guest writers for Songs of Yore. This debut article gives an excellent summary of the dominant position of RD Burman in the 1970s.

By profession, Dr Deshpande is a pathologist with blood transfusion as his speciality. He is currently in-charge of Medical Affairs for Asia Pacific and International Region in Fresenius Kabi, a healthcare MNC. But, more importantly, he is a film music man. He is a regular contributor to HFGK and works closely with Har Mandir Singh ‘Hamraj’. It is my pleasure to welcome him as a guest author to SOY. – AK)

It is indeed a privilege to write a post for SoY. AKji asked me if I could write an article on RD Burman. It would be my first time to write a full non-medical article for a blog but I thought why not. I have enjoyed Hindi films and songs right from my childhood and RD Burman’s music was an integral part of my growing up in the 70s. After all, the Pancham sound was at the peak of its success in the 70s. This decade remains my favourite and I consider early 70s as part of the golden period of Hindi film music as much as the late 60s. These, and below are my personal thoughts to which others may not necessarily agree.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE