Music Directors

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

Chal Ud Ja Re Panchhi 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

Vasant Desai 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

Khemchand Prakash-Anil Biswas 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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Master Ghulam Haider: A Trailblazer

Ghulam Haider November 9, 2022

Guest article by DP Rangan as a tribute to Ghulam Haider on his 69th Remembrance Day (1908 – 9 November 1953) (DP Rangan has been the most prolific guest writer for SOY, but it is more than a year since he last wrote. Some health issues which required hospitalisation, and his computer suddenly conking off […]

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Saraswati Devi: The First Lady of Film Music Who Broke The Glass Ceiling

Saraswati Devi October 28, 2022

(Note: Dear Readers, I believe some registered readers have not been getting email notifications about new posts on SOY. I request all the readers to register themselves again by entering their email in the bottom box captioned “Get mail updates”. You will get a notification from ‘Follow.it’ for confirmation. Please confirm the link, and you […]

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Vasant Desai Part 3 (post-50s): His best songs for Lata Mangeshkar

Vasant Desai-Lata Mangeshkar September 28, 2022

Continuing the series on Vasant Desai, his best songs for Lata Mangeshkar as a tribute to her on her 93rd birthday (28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022) Lata Mangeshkar would have been 93 today. This is her first birthday after she left this mortal world and this calls for a tribute to her. Coincidentally […]

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Khayyam at the Mountain Peak (2): Songs sans Pahadi

Khayyam September 8, 2022

Second part of my two-part tribute to Khayyam (18.2.1927–19.8.2019) on his third Remembrance Day Once the omission of Khayyam was brought to my notice by a reader, I realised any tribute to him could not be limited to one part. One can divide his work by the period, or by the singers, both are sensible […]

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Khayyam at the Mountain Peak (1): Songs on Pahadi

Khayyam August 19, 2022

A tribute to Khayyam (18.2.1927–19.8.2019) on his third Remembrance Day A reader mentioned some time ago that Khayyam has not been covered on SOY. Then I realised that the only post I have included under his name in the side-roll is devoted to his wife, Jagjit Kaur who sang most of her songs under his […]

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Vasant Desai Part 2 (post-1950s): His male singers

Vasant Desai July 10, 2022

In Vasant Desai Part 1 pertaining to the vintage years (1930s and 40s), we were introduced to his multifaceted talents, including his acting and singing. As per N Venkataraman he had sung a total of 37 songs in Hindi and Marathi. We all agreed that he was an outstanding singer, but surprisingly his singing career […]

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Vasant Desai Part 1: A Multifaceted Talent

Vasant Desai May 14, 2022

If a new visitor looks up Songs Of Yore, she would notice some names conspicuously missing in the right-hand scroll of music directors. There is no design in it, it has just happened. Yet I have to thank our regular reader Shachindra Prasad for drawing my attention to the omission of Vasant Desai so far […]

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