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

Miscellaneous

Songs of Yore completes eleven years

June 7, 2021

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,…. it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” Charles Dickens started his “A Tale of Two Cities” with these lines. If we look at the last two […]

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‘क्या भूलूँ क्या याद करूँ’

April 30, 2021

We had thought we would try to forget 2020 as a bad dream. The pandemic last year for most of us was a piece of statistics, a news item. It would not affect us, we all thought. Suddenly in a span of the last few weeks its second wave has struck us as a mighty […]

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Jogi, Bhogi or Dhongi

March 29, 2021

Wishing the readers and their families a very Happy Holi Colloquial equivalents of Sanskrit terms usually retain their exact meaning, such as singaar for shringaar, barkha for varsha etc. But did you give a thought how in case of jogi, which is the Hindi equivalent of yogi, the connotation changes so drastically? As regards yogi, […]

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Romancing with ‘Zindagi’

March 16, 2021

Dev Anand described his autobiography as ‘Romancing with Life’. He got to sing on the screen, Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya, Har fikr ko dhuyen mein udata chala gaya, embodying this philosophy. But he continued with his romantic hero image well into his 70s to the dismay of his fans. To me, he […]

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Romancing the Stranger

February 19, 2021

For quite some time songs like Ajnabi, tum jaane pahchaane se lagte ho, and Kuchh ajanbi se aap hain, kuchh ajanbi se hum have been buzzing like bee in my head for an inexplicable reason. Then an incredible coincidence happened. One day I decided to browse through my books collected over the years that had […]

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Songs of Raja-Rani

February 7, 2021

We all love historical films of Raja-Rani, even though their story does not have much to do with reality or history, except that they pertain to well-known historical figures set in a defined period in history. These films showed the grandeur of the palace and the royals’ life style. Sohrab Modi acquired larger than life […]

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Hans Akela: A song that stood tall amid the ruins

January 1, 2021

Wishing the readers a very Happy New Year with guest article by Rahul Bhagwanrao Muli (Rahul Bhagwanrao Muli is a familiar name for SoY regulars. He is one of the latecomers to the blog, having first discovered it in 2016 – the blog was started in 2010. But he has made a mark for his […]

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Mughals Engulf Bollywood

November 7, 2020

Guest article by DP Rangan as a tribute to the Last Mughal Emporer Bahadur Shah Zafar II on his 158th Remembrance Day (24 October 1775 – 7 November 1862) (Mughal period has fascinated our film makers from the very early days – not to make ‘historical’ films as we understand by the term, but to […]

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Salt, pepper and foods

October 16, 2020

Celebrating the World Food Day (16 October) You would hardly find a dining table in homes or restaurants anywhere in the world which does not have salt and pepper shakers. Without salt and pepper the food would be without any taste. These have also acquired a venerable place in our history. ‘Namak Satyagrah’ or Dandi […]

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Ten years of Songs of Yore

June 7, 2020

When I started blogging a new buzzword had just come into vogue: Vision 2020. We all – whether in public, private or non-profit sectors – were rushing in and out of seminars, workshops and breakout rooms, to prepare a Vision 2020 document for our organisations in nice spiral-bound volumes containing Mission Statement, Vision Statement, Objectives, […]

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