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

Miscellaneous

‘Afsana’, ‘Dastan’, ‘Kahani’ and ‘Fasana’ in songs

May 5, 2026

Old Bollywood was our nursery for Urdu. Where else could you get Tamaam gawaahon ke bayanat and memberaan-e-jury ki sifaarish ke maddenazar? There were always fasadat, khayalat in our films. In between there were some exceptions like Khayalon mein kisi ke is tarah aaya nahin karte. But soon it was back to Ye meri khwahish […]

Read the full article

Songs of a petulant, confused child

March 30, 2026

What happens if a parent has a petulant, confused child, who is given to throwing tantrums before guests. The parents would be embarrassed, but the guests may comfort them: what a lovely child! But if the child displays aggressive behaviour – unless you give him his chocolate or allow him to watch YouTube videos, he […]

Read the full article

Zindagi ai zindagi, zindagi tere hain do roop

May 16, 2025

Haar Jeet, Sukh Dukh, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham – the two opposite feelings, sometimes simultaneously, sometimes alternately are so common in real life, we don’t give much thought to it. Even major disasters, terrorist acts do not move us, they are some statistics in news. Except that something so horrific happens that it hits you […]

Read the full article

Songs of Alankars: Figures of Speech

March 20, 2025

My last post was also on alankars; that was the jewellery women wear on different parts of their body. The language also needs alankars to beautify it. Without figures of speech a language would be quite bland. A British writer Nate White’s article, “Why do some British people not like Trump” went viral sometime back. […]

Read the full article

Where is the mukhada gone, where is antara gone?

January 14, 2025

Where is the mukhada gone, where is antara gone? For most of the history of Hindi film songs they did not go anywhere, they remained rooted where they were supposed to be. The classic structure of our songs was a mukhada with a catchy tune and refrain. This was followed by interlude music and two […]

Read the full article

Kasme vaade pyar wafa sab

June 18, 2024

Our elections are now over after a most toxic campaign. When the two formations were not abusing each other they were competing in promising the electorate moon. Voters seem to have now become smart. They must have realised that most of the promises would not be, cannot be fulfilled. There is no free lunch; if […]

Read the full article

Songs of Yore completes 14 years

June 7, 2024

When I started this blog I never imagined that it would go on for so long. And it is not just clocking year after year. Songs of Yore is perhaps the only place where you will find a comprehensive series on Arrangers and Musicians, the people who embellished the songs with various instrumental preludes, interludes […]

Read the full article

Female bonding and their duets

March 8, 2024

Commemorating the International Women’s Day with female duets Men may not be from Mars nor women from Venus, but there is a fundamental difference in the way the two genders bond with each other. In semi-urban settings at a party, the two genders automatically segregate, each forming their own group. We generally ascribe it to […]

Read the full article

Street Dancers of Bollywood

February 13, 2024

Guest article by DP Rangan (An interesting feature of our films is the dances performed in the streets, often by unknown actors. Sometimes the main protagonists also take to dancing and singing in the streets. Naturally a big crowd assembles around them enjoying the performance. These songs generally come at a critical juncture in the […]

Read the full article

Songs of Yore completes 13 years

June 7, 2023

Today the Songs of Yore completes thirteen years. The last three years have brought great disruption in the world. In the years 2020 and 2021, the pandemic was on a rampage. The year gone by saw a debate whether Covid19 is gone or still around. Finally, the scientific opinion has veered around that this unwanted […]

Read the full article

← Previous Entries