Best duets

Best songs of 1948: Wrap Up 3

Best songs of 1948 November 12, 2017

And the Songs of Yore Award for the Best Duet goes to? As per the long-term average, female solos outnumber male solos by a big margin, with duets somewhere in between. The same is true for the year 1948. My list of 114/115 MEMORABLE SONGS in the Overview post has the following break-up:   Male […]

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Asymmetric Duets

Asymmetric Duets August 21, 2017

Guest article by Subodh Agrawal (I have often mentioned that duets, though far less in number than solo songs, present a fascinating variety of music. One variety is on account of the lesser known female singers getting a chance to sing with major playback singers like Rafi and Mukesh, and we are richer for that […]

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Shankar Jaikishan’s duets (2)

Shankar-Jaikishn May 16, 2017

In the first part of Shankar-Jaikishan’s duets, I covered the songs in which either Mukesh or Rafi sang with a female singer. They being the predominant singers, one would think that that post would cover most of the famous duets composed by them. But SJ were hugely talented and diversified, and played a key role […]

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Shankar-Jaikishan’s duets (1): Mukesh/Rafi with female singers

Shankar Jaikishan April 25, 2017

In the last calendar year I did a series of posts on Shankar-Jaikishan’s songs: singerwise for Lata Mangeshkar, Mukesh, Rafi, Manna Dey, ‘Other singers’ and two posts on their dance songs – for Lata Mangeshkar and female dance duets. Several readers rightly remarked that SJ’s series would not be complete without covering their duets. That […]

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Best songs of 1949: Wrap Up 4

Ae mohabbat unse milne ka bahana ban gaya November 20, 2016

And the SoY Award for the Best Duet goes to? It is always a pleasure to write the Wrap Up 4, which is for the best duets of the year. The best solos always generate some  controversy. In male solos this year, there was a close tie between Rafi and Mukesh. My conclusion that Mukesh […]

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Mukesh’s vintage duets

Mukesh August 27, 2016

A tribute to Mukesh on his 40th death anniversary (22 July 1923 to 27 August 1976) Mukesh debuted well into the vintage era with Dil hi bujha hua hai to in Nirdosh (1941). His first few years as actor-singer did not do him much good. He discovered his calling as a playback singer when his […]

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Best duets of the not-so-unloved Mahendra Kapoor

Mahendra Kapoor March 14, 2016

I had described Mahendra Kapoor as the most unloved singer in my last post on him. I have to modify that phrase, because the comments on that post indicate that he had more passionate fans and admirers than I had realised. Despite not counting myself among his passionate fans, I have a great liking for […]

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Best songs of 1950: Wrap Up 4

1950 films November 11, 2015

Songs of Yore Award for the Best Duet goes to? (Wishing Happy Diwali to everyone) Hans recently commented in some other context that duets generally create less impact than solos. This is certainly true of tennis where the doubles players are not counted in the same league as Federers and Djokovics. In the olden days before the open […]

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Naushad’s Long-distance Duets of Separation

Naushad August 19, 2015

Hindi films have a very neat structure. They can be divided into three parts – romance, conflict and resolution. The lovers meet, or childhood friends grow up into lovers and dance around trees and sing romantic songs. Then the villain strikes, who lusts for the girl or her wealth, and kidnaps her; or the girl’s […]

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Best duets of Talat Mahmood and Asha Bhosle

Talat Mahmood and Asha Bhosle February 24, 2013

A tribute on Talat Mahmood’s Birth Anniversary, February 24 When I wrote on Talat Mahmood’s peppy duets last year, it left many readers naturally unsatiated. He, of the velvety voice, is known more for his heart-touching, soft and romantic duets. The readers very generously gave a big list of his duets with various female singers, […]

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