Singers

Chitragupta’s duets for Rafi: Melody Personified

Chitragupta and Rafi July 31, 2020

A tribute to Rafi (24 December 1924 – 31 July 1980) on his 40th Remembrance Day Today is the 40th Remembrance Day of Rafi. He was the most versatile playback singer of the Golden Era of film music and, more importantly, he was universally known as a good human being, without malice to anyone, and […]

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Hemantayan – Part 1

Hemant Kumar June 16, 2020

A tribute to Hemant Kumar on his Birth Centenary (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989) by guest author N Venkataraman (Lata Mangeshkar once said in an interview about Hemant Kumar, “Listening to Hemant Da, I feel as though a sadhu sitting in a temple is singing a bhajan.” But a more endearing observation was […]

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Remembering a special singer Manna Dey

Manna Dey May 1, 2020

A tribute on Manna Dey’s 101st birth anniversary (1 May 1919 – 24 October 2013) Manna Dey was one of the great playback singers of the Golden Era. I missed to acknowledge him on his birth centenary last year. This omission is symptomatic of his relative place in the film music. He was the most […]

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The immortal voice: The echoing memories of KL Saigal on his birth anniversary

KL Saigal April 4, 2020

Guest article by Sharad Dutt as a tribute to KL Saigal on his 116th birth anniversary (4 April 1904 to 18 January 1947) (KL Saigal is the most towering actor-singer of our films. He was a part of our daily lives courtesy Radio Ceylon which made it a daily ritual to end its programme on […]

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In the Musical Memory of Meena Kapoor

Meena Kapoor March 17, 2020

Guest article by Shalan Lal as Part II of the Remembrance Tribute to Meena Kapoor (c. 1930 – 23 November 2017) (Shalan Lal wrote a comprehensive post on Meena Kapoor on her first death anniversary 23 November 2018. I didn’t know that she was planning to write a second part too. She sent me the […]

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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: ‘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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