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

Music Directors

Best songs of 1941: Wrap Up 1

May 27, 2024

And the SOY Award for the Best Male Singer goes to? In KL Saigal’s active years, the Best Male Singer was generally a one-horse race. He has sung great songs in 1941, too, in the film Lagan. Yet he is not a runaway winner. Nay, I would say with Doctor (1941) in which Pankaj Mullick […]

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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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SN Tripathi Part 5 (post-50s): His best songs by other female playback singers

SN Tripathi with Geeta Dutt and Shamshad begum

October 19, 2023

Concluding the series on SN Tripathi with his best songs for ‘other’ female playback singers It is time to conclude the series on SN Tripathi after a comprehensive coverage of his multi-faceted talent in the Vintage Era (1949 and earlier) in Part 1 as a singer, actor, music director and dialogue and story writer; Part […]

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SN Tripathi Part 4 (post 50s): His best songs for Lata Mangeshkar

September 28, 2023

Continuing the series on SN Tripathi with a tribute to Lata Mangeshkar on her 94th birth anniversary (28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022) It is matter of satisfaction that after a reader noted the omission of SN Tripathi, I have been able to cover him in some detail, though late. I have already posted […]

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SN Tripathi Part 3 (post-50s): His best songs for Mukesh and other male singers

August 27, 2023

A tribute to Mukesh on his 47th Remembrance Day (22 July 1923 – 27 August 1976) in the series on SN Tripathi Last month radio, print and visual media was awash with tributes to Mukesh on his birth centenary (22 July 1923 – 27 August 1976). All the tributes were unanimous that he was gifted […]

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SN Tripathi Part 2 (post-1950s): His best songs for Mohammad Rafi

July 31, 2023

A tribute to Rafi on his 43rd Remembrance Day with the continuing series on SN Tripathi In SN Tripathi Part 1 (1930s and 40s) we became familiar with his multi-faceted personality: an actor, a singer, a music director, and surprisingly also a director – though of post-50s films. But post-50s we know him mostly as […]

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SN Tripathi Part 1: The Vintage Years – A Multi-faceted Talent

March 28, 2023

A tribute to SN Tripathi on the 35th Anniversary of his Remembrance Day (14 March 1913-28 March 1988) Whenever we think of melody, honey-dipped sweetness and beautiful dances to classical/ semi-classical tunes we think of SN Tripathi. We all have many of his immortal songs on our lips: Aa laut ke aaja mere meet, Nain […]

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Book Review: “चल उड़ जा रे पंछी (संगीतकार चित्रगुप्त: व्यक्ति एवं कृति)”

February 8, 2023

चल उड़ जा रे पंछी… संगीतकार चित्रगुप्त: व्यक्ति एवं कृति (खण्ड 1 एवं खण्ड 2) By: Dr. Narendra Nath Pandey Kautilya Books, New Delhi: 2022 ISBN: 978-93-90885-68-8 Pages: (256+474=730) Price on Amazon: ₹1500 (Hardcover) I have to start with a disclosure. The author of the above book, Dr Narendra Nath Pandey, is well known to […]

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Vasant Desai Part 4 (post-1950s): His ‘other’ female singers

December 22, 2022

Continuing the series of tributes to Vasant Desai, the final tribute on his 47th Remembrance Day (9 June 2012 – 22 December 1975) When I started writing my tribute to Vasant Desai to fill up a noticeable gap on SOY, I didn’t know how many articles I would need to cover his career to my […]

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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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