Vasant Desai

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

Continuing the series of tributes to Vasant Desai, the final tribute on his 47th Remembrance Day (9 June 2012 – 22 December 1975)

Vasant Desai

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 satisfaction. I knew it would be more than one, because he straddled both the Vintage Era (1930s and 1940s) and the Golden Era (1950s and 60s) and he was multi-faceted having acted and sang in his early films, besides being a renowned music director. Sometime in the Vintage Era he gave up acting and singing. I have covered all the facets of his enormous talent in the Vintage Era in Part 1 of my tribute. In the post-50s period he confined himself only to music direction and made a mark for himself. This was a period when a hundred flowers bloomed, and to do justice to Vasant Desai, I had to continue my series by writing on his songs for major singers.

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

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)

Vasant Desai-Lata MangeshkarLata 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 SOY is paying a series of tributes to Vasant Desai who was a class composer but was not counted among the top by the conventional pecking order. His songs for Lata Mangeshkar were exceptionally melodious. Vasant Desai Part 1 was devoted to his multifaceted talent in the vintage era (pre-50s) as an actor, singer and music director. The part 2 onwards are devoted to the post-50s era with which we are all more familiar. Vasant Desai Part 2 was devoted to his male singers in which I also included MF duets. Lata Mangeshkar is by far his most preferred female singer (no surprise there), and quite a good number are unforgettable. It became appropriate to post a tribute to her on her 93rd birthday with her best songs by the maestro in Vasant Desai Part 3. This would also include her duets with a female singer.

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

Vasant DesaiIn 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 came to a complete halt in 1944. The era of the great male playback years was a few years away. The difference between vintage and golden era (post-1950s) is not merely chronological, but also the singing style and emergence of new great playback singers: Rafi, Mukesh, Talat Mahmood, Manna Dey, Hemant Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, Geeta Dutt, Asha Bhosle etc.

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Vasant Desai Part 1: A Multifaceted Talent

Vasant DesaiIf 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 on the blog. We know him primarily as the music director of V Shantaram’s famous films like Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje (1955); Toofan Aur Diya (1956); Do Aankhein Barah Hath (1957); Mausi (1958); and outside films like Ardhangini, School Master, Goonj Uthi Shehnai (1959); and Guddi (1971). But during review of songs of the Vintage Era, we came across Vasant Desai as a singer too, besides being a music director. That was not a casual dalliance. Some of the songs sung by him may be a new discovery for most of us, but they are absolutely mellifluous.

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