Music Directors

Ravi’s many-splendoured genius with the ‘other’ singers

Ravi December 15, 2019

We now come to the end of the series on Ravi. In my opening post in the series we saw him as a many-splendoured genius with a large number of songs for themes and occasions, which have acquired an iconic status, many of which made the readers exclaim, Oh, this is also composed by him! […]

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Ravi’s ‘other’ female playback singer: Lata Mangeshkar

Ravi and Lata Mangeshkar November 28, 2019

Another tribute to Lata Mangeshkar on her turning 90 (b. 28 September 1929) Lata Mangeshkar turned ninety two months ago to this day. On this special day Shalan Lal wrote a comprehensive article on her, analysing the ‘conditions’ that made the Lata Mangeshkar-phenomenon possible, while acknowledging that there was something divine about her voice, something […]

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Ravi: Booster rocket for Mahendra Kapoor

Ravi and Mahendra Kapoor November 18, 2019

In my earlier posts on Mahendra Kapoor I have described him as the most ‘unloved’ singer. The general impression is that his entry into films started with his winning the ‘All India Murphy Metro Singing Contest’ in 1957 for which the judges were Anil Biswas, Naushad, C Ramchandra, Vasant Desai and Madan Mohan. One of […]

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Sachin Karta’s Last Visit to Agartala

SD Burman October 31, 2019

A tribute to SD Burman on his 44th death anniversary with guest article by Moti Lalwani  (The month of October starts with SD Burman (b. 1 October 1906 – d. 31 October 1975) and ends with him. Around the time I was thinking of writing a review of HQ Chowdhury’s ‘Incomparable Sachin Dev Burman’, Moti […]

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SD Burman: Pioneer in Composing Tune First

SD Burman October 24, 2019

Guest article by Moti Lalwani (Which comes first – the lyrics or the music – has been a recurring debate in any discussion on film music. In the continuing series on celebrating October 2019 as the month of SD Burman, Moti Lalwani writes the third guest article after his last two articles showing how Burman […]

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SD Burman: ‘The Courage of His Convictions’ (Establishes Geeta Dutt As a Frontline Singer)

SD Burman and Geeta Dutt October 16, 2019

Gust article by Moti Lalwani (We are aware that SD Burman had an uncanny ear for selecting a singer for a particular song. In this he didn’t care for the reputation of a celebrity artist, director, producer, or singer. He was the Master of Music, and he made the final choice. That is why there […]

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SD Burman: ‘The Courage of His Convictions’ (Has his way on Hemant Kumar)

SD Burman and Hemant Kumar October 8, 2019

Guest article by Moti Lalwani as a tribute to SD Burman (1 October 1906 – 31 October 1975) ‘Ye raat ye chandni phir kahaan’ by Hemant Kumar, lyricist Sahir Ludhiyanavi, composed by SD Burman (When I wrote a review of HQ Chowdhury’s book ‘Incomparable Sachin Dev Burman’ sometime back, I had mentioned that an acknowledged […]

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Shakeel Badayuni: Revitalising bond with Ravi

Ravi and Shakeel Badayuni September 18, 2019

Guest article by Hans Jakhar (This is the second guest article by Hans Jakhar on the trot after his debut with Asha Bhosle’s songs by Ravi. He had given enough indication that he would be writing on Shakeel Badayuni’s partnership with Ravi. Hans’s forte is mastery over data. And you see full evidence of this […]

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Ravi and Asha Bhosle: A class combination

Ravi and Asha Bhosle September 8, 2019

Wishing Asha Bhosle a very happy 86th birth anniversary (b. 8 September 1933) with a guest article by Hans Jakhar (Asha Bhosle, despite being the most recorded artiste by miles, remained the ‘other’ singer for most music directors of the Golden Era. All the accolades and the most melodious songs went to her elder sister […]

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Ravi’s best duets for Rafi

Ravi and Rafi August 20, 2019

In my last post I covered Ravi’s best solo songs for Rafi. He composed about 250 songs for Rafi, including duets. It is a huge number in absolute as well as relative terms. Only two, Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Shankar-Jaikishan, have undisputedly composed more Rafi songs than him, as can be expected. Chitragupta is in the same […]

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