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

Music Directors

Roshan: the great melody maker for Lata Mangeshkar

November 16, 2011

A tribute on his death anniversary on November 16 I have expressed great admiration for Roshan at several places in my blog. Among the greatest and most melodious songs of Lata Mangeshkar, Roshan compositions occupy a very high place. He did not achieve big commercial success as some of his peers, but for music lovers […]

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My favourite Lata Mangeshkar songs by C Ramchandra

September 28, 2011

Birthday greetings to Lata Mangeshkar on September 28 Presenting my favourite Lata Mangeshkar songs composed by C Ramchandra, as my birthday greetings to her on September 28, is not a very diplomatic thing to do, given the history of their relationship. As her biographical accounts go, Lata Mangeshkar was more than a muse to C […]

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My favourite ‘special’ Asha Bhosle songs

September 8, 2011

My greetings on her birthday September 8 Knowing that Asha Bhosle has a huge fan following and there are people more passionate about her than Lata Mangeshkar, I have to carefully choose my words to describe my relationship with her. If I am asked to choose only 20 singers from the 1930s to 60s for […]

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New Theatres’ romance with Prem

May 29, 2011

Best love songs of Vintage Era I have been in the New Theatres mood since I wrote my last post on Pankaj Mullick. BN Sircar established New Theatres in Calcutta in 1931, i.e. the same year the first talkie Alam Ara was released in Bombay. Music has been an integral part and a defining feature […]

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My favourite Pankaj Mullick songs

May 10, 2011

A tribute on his birthday May 10 I became seriously acquainted with Pankaj Mullick several years after I had thoroughly absorbed KL Saigal. This would probably be the normal sequence for any non-Bengalee what with Saigal having acquired an iconic status, and generations of listeners having grown on a Saigal song every morning at 7.57 […]

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Some timeless songs of Jagjit Kaur

April 24, 2011

I would have written on Jagjit Kaur at some uncertain time in future. That I am doing it now owes it to my friend Subodh Agrawal, a regular visitor to my blog. His glowing reference to Jagjit Kaur in my last blog on Subir Sen touched a chord in me – I am also a […]

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The ‘other’ Madan Mohan

March 3, 2011

Humse nain milana BA pass kar ke Commuting to your office could be a pain, but if your driver’s musical taste goes back to the Golden Era, ranging from Mukesh to Hemant Kumar to Talat Mehmood to Shamshad Begum to Suraiya, you look forward to the drive; the traffic jam is no longer an irritant, […]

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Best of Mahendra Kapoor-OP Nayyar

January 9, 2011

Mahendra Kapoor was the favourite singer of BR Chopra Films, and Ravi was their favourite composer. BR Films-Ravi-Mahendra Kapoor combination gave a large number of well known songs. After Ravi, the only music director who used Mahendra Kapoor in a significant manner was OP Nayyar, apparently on rebound when he had some rift with Mohammad […]

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A Mahendra Kapur-Sahir Ludhiyanvi-Ravi classic

December 20, 2010

Chalo ek baar phir se ajanabi ban jayen hum dono If ever there was a song that could be described as the defining song of a singer, Mahendra Kapur’s Chalo ek baar phir se ajanabi ban jayen hum dono is one such song. Mahendra Kapur, who came to the film world through a singing talent […]

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Remembering Mughal-e-Azam’s Music

August 22, 2010

Travesty of missing the Filmfare award This is the Golden Jubilee year of Mughal-e-Azam (1960), and the media, both print and electronic, is rightly full of the movie. Everything about the film was superlative – its lavish production, awesome battle scenes with thousands of camels, horses and soldiers (there were no computer generated imaging those […]

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